Links are so important because they are the main way the search engines interpret which sites will rank higher in the search engine results pages after  all the relevant content and keyword use has been taken into account.  Links are votes or citations for your website.  If someone likes a product, the service you have offered or something you have written then they can share that by putting a link to it on their website.  This acts as a notification for the search engine spiders crawling the internet that your webpage has been vouched for – and the more authoritative the source sharing the link, the more that link is worth.  But this is not the only influencing factor in determining the quality of a link, there are many.  This is why a successful link building campaign can be a difficult process.

The first step of a link building campaign can often start at the directories.  Directories are occasionally maligned by some of the SEO community despite the fact that they are a proven platform on which to build the rest of you link building strategy.  It is true that some directories lack authority in the eyes of the search engine which can be down to a lack of authority – perhaps due to the quality of content they link to, or even how long they have been in existence.  However, with a little research good directories can be found. This can be through looking at their T&Cs, the quality of the content they link to and if the directory itself has a good PageRank.  Based on these factors you should begin approaching the directories with the proposition of gaining a link through them.  Some directories require a fee, while others are free and some may even ask to exchange links.  Whatever way you choose to approach these websites, it is important to keep in mind that they can play a big part in the success of your website, so if you submit content make sure it is as relevant and dynamic as possible.

Another possibility can be inspired by the analysis of competitors.  Using the information garnered from the keyword searches done, you can personally contact each of the top ranking sites in an attempt to get a link from them.  The best way to do this is usually to take a personable approach –a bespoke e-mail, or even a phone call can make the difference as supposed to a stock e-mail.

The final possibility for a link building campaign that I will discuss is probably the most difficult, but proves that link building is a process that needs to be on going.  That is blogging, activity on forums, a social media presence – anything that will keep your company being spoken about in the online community relevant to your market.  Link building can be a bit of a PR exercise.  So, when approaching blogs and social media, if you take the time to comment about someone else’s product or link to their site they will, more often than not, link back to you.  An important factor in this approach is that the quality of the content on your site needs to be relevant and original, as you don’t want to create a link to a site that will lose you lots of authority.

Link building is difficult.  It’s hard work, and needs to be carefully monitored and constantly updated in order to achieve the best results.  However, it is one of the most important processes that you will undertake during an SEO campaign and can yield big improvement in the SERPs.

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How Does It Work?

The primary example that is given at schema is based on a website about the film ‘Avatar’.  Originally the coding would look like this:

<div>
<h1>Avatar</h1>
<span>Director: James Cameron (born August 16, 1954)</span>
<span>Science fiction</span>
<a href=”../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html”>Trailer</a>
</div>

As you can see, it is specified in the <h1> to be about something called ‘Avatar’.  Humans can see that it is about the film due to the other information, therefore they attach semantic value to it.  Search engines however, lack this ability and won’t be able to distinguish between ‘Avatar’ the film and an ‘Avatar’ – meaning a graphical representation of a user.  So, using the schema database, the programmer can attach the following:

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Movie”>
<h1>Avatar</h1>
<span>Director: James Cameron (born August 16, 1954)</span>
<span>Science fiction</span>
<a href=”../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html”>Trailer</a>
</div>

In this case the additional code entered is ‘itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Moive”‘.  This specifies to the search engines that the use of the word ‘Avatar’ is related to the movie and not the personal icon.  The Schema microdata allows for even greater detail, allowing you to specify properties about certain parts of the code.  For example:

<div itemscope itemtype =”http://schema.org/Movie”>
<h1 itemprop=”name”>Avatar</h1>
<span>Director: <span itemprop=”director”>James Cameron</span> (born August 16, 1954)</span>
<span itemprop=”genre”>Science fiction</span>
<a href=”../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html” itemprop=”trailer”>Trailer</a>
</div>

With these additional elements of code, the search engines now know that the webpage is about the ‘science fiction’ ‘movie’ ‘Avatar’ directed by ‘James Cameron’.  So, it is in this new semantic mark-up to help categorize data that the importance for those working in search engine optimisation can be found.  It removes any lexical ambiguity, therefore allowing more precise data structuring and more specific implementation of search engine optimisation strategies.

What does it mean for those working in SEO?

However, the fun for the programmers doesn’t stop there! Oh no, there’s much more.  If you visit the Schema website, there is a list of all the commands.  I’ll pick a few that I feel will be of particular value to internet marketing proffesionals.

•    “mainContentOfPage” – this specifies which element of the page is the most significant.  So, if you have a webpage with a variety of content, you can now stipulate to the search engine that a particular piece of content serves to represent the main purpose of that webpage.

•    “primaryImageOfPage” – this indicates to the search engine that a particular image needs to be treated with prominence.

•    “significantLinks” – this particular attribute could have real value to SEOs who will now be able to tell the search engines which links are more valuable than others.  This raises questions about the valuation of metrics such as PageRank, and how the attribution of it will be affected by being able to place more important links on certain pages.  Time and testing will hold the answer to that.

These are only a few examples, but I feel they are some of the key ones that represent how this might affect our industry.  You can also indicate to the search engines about the general content of a page – is it an “ItemPage”, “ProfilePage” or “ContactPage”.  Again, we will have to wait and see if the valuation of a page is altered by the implementation of these tags.  For example, will an “ItemPage” hold more value to the search engines than a “ContactPage”? Again, time and testing required.

The Conclusion

The change just means the results appear with whatever microdata the programmer specifies in the search engines.  However, I personally believe its use will transcend the SERPs.  For example, I can think of many examples where a search engine might look a piece of content and debate its value, purpose and intent (if it is spammy or not) and perhaps come to the wrong conclusion.  Now, with this set of Universal rules, sites can be structured uniformly, minimising the risk of ambiguity and misunderstanding.  It’s too early to say if this will influence the SERPs, but as Google say on their blog ‘site owners can improve how their sites appear in search results not only on Google, but on Bing [and] Yahoo!’.  Surely, you want to make the most of this?

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There doesn’t seem to be any way around this in the long term, apart from democratisation, and ISPs are not in the business of regime change, unless of course it’s by exposure of users to other cultures via the internet. It’s not just users from the censored country that are penalised – it’s businesses and educators across the globe. Search engine optimisation, under normal circumstances, enhances your exposure to potential customers – but when ISPs allow themselves to be bullied into censoring results, fairness goes out of the window, and so does a percentage of your trade.

What is the alternative – is some presence, even censored, a good thing in order to open up communication or should ISPs withdraw altogether? While the good and the great are sorting this out, you should look seriously at your SEO with a view to ensuring nothing in your site content unwittingly offends the censors and blocks your site to customers in those countries. At Click Consult, we provide expert internet marketing advice and SEO analysis to ensure your site achieves maximum results.

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The way PageRank calculates each web page’s value is by assigning it a number from 0-10, with 0 being allocated to pages with no inward links, or to those which are being penalised for adopting shady methods of search engine optimisation. Pages that have gained inward links, known as votes, will be judged on the amount and quality of these links. A high amount of votes doesn’t necessarily convert to a high PageRank number – other factors play their part too. The quality of links is determined by their relevance to the site’s content, but is also determined by the PageRank of the site referencing it.

There are 150 million websites competing for the top rankings on Google’s search engine results pages. At Click Consult, we understand how to work with Google’s PageRank and other search engine ranking methods, to get the best SEO results for your website.

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When writing HTML code do not use tables

There are those that suggest that having table in HTML code can severely damage your web design, and thus rankings. However this is our first SEO myth. When tables are created in HTML they are easy for search engines to crawl, and this has been true since search engines first began. The myth originated from web developers who are pro tableless web designs and this has influenced people to believe that these types of designs will have a more positive impact on page rankings.

Never use image links – always opt for text links

Again this is not sound advice, and image links have actually been a perfectly effective means of creating links for several years. Search engines can follow these links easily and they can be used for navigation. Just ensure that the alt tags replicate what would be used in the anchor text if you were using a text link. A word of caution, however; make sure you limit the volume of large images used so that the site speed is not impaired.

Never use Flash on a website

This is a common myth and although it’s wise to avoid using Flash across the whole site for search engine optimisation, you can employ it here and there without impacting the search engines. You will not be penalised, but ensure that the essential elements of the site are not built in Flash – such as the content.

At Click Consult we can offer more advice on your internet marketing campaign.

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In online marketing many websites will have dynamic components, whether it has specifically tailored content or a simple search page assembly. Each type of dynamic content can result in issues for search engine optimisation. The scope of the dynamic element will determine just how difficult the issues can be.

The main problems relating to dynamic content is that search engines can struggle to index it. If the content changes according to who views it, the search engine spiders will not be able to determine whether the page that appears is cached. This may alert the search engines to the possibility of doorway pages which is when one page is presented to the search engine and another to users.

These days search engines say they can manage dynamic content much better however most SEO experts don’t place much trust in that. It is still a fact that sites that hold a large amount of dynamic content will be at higher risk of hitting problems with search engines. Anything that causes communication problems is a hindrance to your site’s performance.

Another issue is dynamic URLs as these are also not liked by search engines. Dynamic URLs often contain pages that are number coded or ‘?’ symbols. This can be confusing for the search engines and Google is particularly wary of them. This can cause your results to fall.

At Click Consult we can help with all your SEO issues.

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You need to aim to create as simple a website directory structure as possible.  Make sure that you don’t create directories that are tucked away in various layers of other directories.  The best option is to put your pages on the root directory.  This is a more important level than leaving pages in sub folders and folders.  However, with certain sites this isn’t always possible.  If your site has products structured into brands, categories and sub brands you may struggle.  You could opt for one of the following:

- Flat directory structure – this is a great choice for small sites and gives uniform space to all pages.  However, as the site grows pages can be unequal

- Vertical directory structure – choose this if you have a larger website.  This option applies more weight to the higher-level category pages

Regardless of your directory structure, search engines will access your internal pages as long as all the pages are well linked.  Review the navigation of the website and ensure that low level pages can be reached via just two clicks away from the homepage.  This will provide a good structural mix.

For more ways to use search engine optimisation to increase your search engine rankings contact us at Click Consult.

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The great thing about SEO is that it does not only improve the quantity of visitors to a site but also the quality of visitors. What is meant by this is that people who find your particular site would have intended to visit it.

The keywords that they have typed into the search slot of the search engines will correspond to the keywords on your site. Unless you have used deceitful means to attract users, then the people that do click on your link will be useful to you, and your site useful to them.

What does a website owner gain from this application?

The obvious way that your website will benefit with an SEO program, is that you will receive a greater number of useful traffic to your site. But how does this work? By applying an SEO campaign as a marketing strategy, you gain more exposure on different search engines. Ranking plays a big part in providing visibility.

Ranking basically means how high your website’s link appears on search engines result’s pages like Google and Yahoo. When you are placed top, which is the aim of anyone employing SEO, you stand a greater chance of being selected by internet users as the most relevant site to visit.

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For example, is your children’s birthday party page set up as children’s-birthday-party.html?  Has the main title been set up as ‘party’ or is it ‘children’s birthday party’?  Check if the phrase has been used in the meta title and that have you got enough content.  Don’t fall into the eCommerce trap of have mainly images on the page, you’ll need to incorporate good quality content so that Google is able to crawl and rank your page.

By building the website with these points in mind you’ll find your SEO will result in higher rankings for specific long tail searches.

The other way of attracting long tail search visitors is to set up your website to cater for ‘question searches’ such as ‘Why does my Ford Fiesta keep stalling?’  To attract this type of traffic, set up a forum or a blog.  This will encourage visitors to post this style of question on the site which will in turn attract people searching on the main search engines.

Long tail searches can increase your rankings with the search engines.  For more ways to improve your search engine optimisation campaign and increase your site’s rankings speak to us at Click Consult.

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In short, Google Local is an alternative to Yellow Pages.  It simply identifies websites within the local area that deal in the products or services that a user is searching for.  The business listings are generated by an algorithm which also determines where the website address will be positioned.

Even new listings can get a shot at high positions, but positive feedback will benefit your ranking.

For example, if you were a restaurant based in Manchester and want people to find you when they search under ‘restaurants in Manchester’ you can employ the Google Local tool. Google Local provides you with a link into your website, other contact details and customer reviews.  This is an effective means of search engine optimisation as it positions the website at the head of the search result page.

The next stage is to get your site into local directories.  Using the Manchester restaurant example, a local directory like manchesterrestaurants.com will be picked up by Google and therefore greater importance will be placed on your Google Local entry.

On the whole, Google Local can create a great opportunity to increase exposure and get a position at the top of Google search.  You can even have your address details marked on a map so your potential customers can find you easily.  Click Consult would recommend Google Local as part of many SEO campaigns.

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