Before launching into this article, it might make more sense to begin by asking: do you know who Matt Cutts is? He's the head of Google's webspam team and is increasingly seen as the public face of Google, when it comes to providing information about SEO. His blog contains notes on what you should be doing, as well as techniques that should be avoided. As a result, he regularly issues guidance on a broad range of issues. There's...
It sometimes feels a little too easy to associate any loss of positioning within Google with the idea that a site has been hit by a penalty. Although this is probably the actual cause in many cases, it's often easy to place blame in the wrong area. If you've been busily submitting reconsideration requests and not getting much joy, then you need to think about your approach. What can a reconsideration request be used for and why...
There are plenty of companies offering SEO audit services, particularly since so many websites have been hit by various Google algorithm updates. Aims The key objective of any SEO audit should be to identify any existing problems with the search engine optimisation of a site. If a site has been hit by a penalty, then a complete online marketing audit should also enable the causes of such a penalty to be identified. Key Elements The main elements of the SEO...
The concept of online reputation management has gained an increased profile during the past couple of years. In fact, some SEO specialists are concentrating solely on this area. With an ever increasing amount of business being conducted online, the importance of having a strong, positive online presence is clear. To a certain extent, reputation management comes into its own when there are other business failings. Dealing with negative reviews An obvious situation where assistance may be needed is in...
In most SEO campaigns, it's likely that you'll have some sort of mixture of objectives. You may have identified some "quick wins" - keywords where you think that progress can be made quickly. These probably (although not always) will be terms that don't generate huge amounts of traffic. You may feel that there is a lack of competition, however, which should ensure that you can gain positioning pretty quickly. It's then likely that you'll have a set of...
Part of our role is to stay up to date with the latest search engine changes. Since the SEO scene changes pretty frequently, this is no small task! As we read information provided from various official sources, industry forums and blogs, we often see the same questions cropping up in a variety of different places. Here are some of the more common questions that arise, together with some definite answers. Q: How can I find out if a...
The start of a new year clearly brings numerous opportunities, particularly in the world of business. For those operating online, this may be a time to look again at the time, effort and money that is being associated with the SEO process. The role of Google Google's dominance of the UK search engine scene continues and shows few signs of diminishing. Although Microsoft have invested heavily in producing a higher profile for their Bing search engine, the reality...
There's a lot of information about SEO provided online. Some of it is extremely useful, but there's also plenty of rubbish out there! Here's we take a look at some common myths and look to answer some important questions about SEO basics. Myth: You need to stick lots of keywords into the META keywords tag So what's the situation here and why has this become accepted? It's probably useful to start with a brief history lesson. In the early...
The BBC seem to be one of the organisations leading the way in the world of SEO. At least, you may often feel that it seems that way. If you search for just about anything that has recently made the news, then there's a fair chance that the BBC site will appear within the first page of the search engine results. That's an enviable position for them to have gained, but what's the explanation behind the level...
We know that "content is king" when it comes to the world of SEO. How do we know this? Mainly because it's something that's constantly stated by people working within the SEO industry. It's also a statement, however, that seems to me to have contributed to an overload of poor quality information online. It seems that plenty of people are out there creating content, but is there really value associated with much of it? Sadly, it seems...