Internet Marketing Blog » search engine rankings

New Google Breadcrumb Feature

James — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:00:15 +0000

You’ll usually find navigation ‘breadcrumbs’ across the top of a webpage just below the webpage title or header. They are handy for creating back links to the previous pages the web user has navigated through on their way to the page they are viewing. They provide a useful way of linking back to their starting point, be they the homepage or an inner page.

It has been announced recently by Google when and why it will show this type of breadcrumb navigation within its search results for search marketing. Previously, you will have seen Google highlighting authority sites that have inner pages links showing under the Meta tag description. Using this latest feature, Google has announced that it could display these website hierarchies in return for a minimal slice of the search results. This would apply when adding the site hierarchy betters the search results adding greater context regarding the link it is pointing at.

The most useful part of the new Google feature is that every link in the displayed breadcrumb can be clicked on providing web users with fast links into inner pages on a given website.

If Google go ahead, the new method of showing internal pages would significantly increase the usability and convenience of reaching specific areas of the website. It may also encourage website owners to focus as much on inner pages as they currently do on homepages. Part of an effective search engine optimisation and web marketing strategy is to monitor changes in search engine behaviour.

If your search engine optimisation needs help then speak to us at Click Consult for expert guidance to boost your rankings.

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How To Avoid Duplication Issues

Dan Taylor — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:01:52 +0000

At Click Consult we have worked with many sites that have issues with duplicate content. If a search engine detects this within your website, you can be penalised for it and will receive a lower ranking in the SERPs.

These issues are a common pitfall in SEO so here are some of the most common issues and ways to resolve them:

Issue 1

One of the top duplication problems is known as canonicalisation. This happens when ‘www’ is removed from a website URL resulting in a duplication with the site which has the www.

Solution

To get around this, the most effective way is to use the 301 redirect to the version of the website with the www. In some cases this might not be possible so here you can use the rel=canonical tag. If that fails try using Google Webmaster Tools to set the preferred domain.

Issue 2

When you submit a site to a directory, you can make the mistake of entering text from your main website as a description. This may seem like a simple way to add descriptive text in the directories but Google will automatically see this as a duplication, particularly if a large block of text is copied.

Solution

The solution is simple – use unique text for descriptive content and check it does not appear on your site or any other sites.

You can use tools available to double check you are using original text. ‘CopyScape’ is a great tool for double checking your content and will quickly identify any issues when you are adding text to directories.

For more help and advice on search engine optimisation contact us at Click Consult.

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How Does A Website Get A High Ranking?

Nick — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:05:02 +0000

At Click Consult we get to work with websites that enjoy high rankings in the SERPs and those that are finding it difficult to be ranked at all. No matter where your website is ranking, you will have competitors that you need to be one step ahead of and developing a good SEO strategy is paramount.

You may wonder when looking at other sites why one in particular is ranking higher than the others. Or you may want to learn how to compete with a specific site. Here are some guidelines that can help you to fully understand the merits of sites when comparing them against your own:

PageRank: Those sites with a high PageRank are, in the main, long-established sites with quality links directing back to them. A small site with PR0 will have little chance of achieving a ranking on a level with or above a PR7 site, for example. You need to be realistic when comparing yourself against competitors.

Age: If a site has been around for a while it will have built up trust. Therefore older domain names tend to have higher rankings than younger domain names.

Links: Rankings can be affected by back links. To be effective, back links should be connected to your industry and you need to check that you don’t link to penalised sites.

Content: Content must be unique and kept up to date and relative to your industry. A site with good content will rank well providing the content is relevant and the text isn’t spammed with keywords.

For more guidance on how you can ensure your search engine optimisation is effective, contact us at Click Consult.

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SEO Campaign – Giving Your Web Business A Boost

Dan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:13:54 +0000

Why does any person start a business? The simple answer is to make money. Preferably as much money as humanly possible to be specific. It is built into human nature to strive forward, to succeed. In our modern society, the business world is extremely competitive. With the Internet this competitiveness has been taken to another level totally.

Businesses now have the ability to reach across the world instantly. The Internet never sleeps, so business opportunities never sleep. To be successful you have to stay ahead of the pack. You must make use of every possible tool to give you this edge to stand out from your competitors. Search Engine Optimisation could be the most beneficical tool you will ever use!

Boost to success

SEO does not involve a single factor; it is a combination of techniques within the wider strategy that come together to bring you that coveted high ranking. Optimisation is a long-term process that brings with it long-term benefits to your business. It targets your specific target audience, which means that the people who come to your website are more likely to convert into paying customers because they are already interested in what you offer.

This is the aim of your SEO campaign. You want higher sales as this boosts your profit margin. Using search engine optimisation is the single most effective way for a new business to make its mark online.

For the business that is showing signs of stagnating, SEO is the injection that gives it a new lease on life. Your campaign can be demographic specific as well as geographic specific. This gives a tighter focus and a bigger boost to those businesses which need this form of SEO.

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Submitting your website to a Search Engine

James — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:23:04 +0000

In order to implement effective search engine optimisation, you need to know how to optimise your site in order to get great rankings and this entails a thorough understanding of how search engines build their databases. Major search engines do not have their own databases, so you have to first submit your site details to a database builder.

How do major search engines work?

Search engines can be either automated; if they are they are called ‘crawlers’, or they are work by manually mining data, these are called ‘directories’.

Crawlers latch on to links on your pages and build their databases from the words they find in the text on your public pages. They match keywords which you provide on submission. No one knows exactly what the search engine algorithms are, it seems that a few occurrences of keywords help search engines to more easily understand a web page However, spamming pushes rankings down, so don’t litter your pages. Google is a ‘crawler’ search engine, so too is AltaVista.

Directory search engines employ people to conduct the same searches, manually. This takes much longer to get included in a database and these search engines charge a fee for this service.

How is Indexing and Ranking is carried out?

Categorising a website can only be done by conducting on the basis of ‘frequency of occurrence’ which takes into account keywords or key phrases in the copy on the web pages you have submitted. On submission, search engines ask four things of a site owner. They ask what the title of the site is. They ask for a short description of the site as well as a set of keywords or key phrases and they ask the site owner for a category.

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SEO and the recession

Dan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:20:11 +0000

Everyone is highly aware at the moment that the world’s economy is extremely tight. This means every company, big or small is looking into every possible way they can save money. The tighter things get, the more businesses are cutting corners to stay profitable. One of the services people look to immediately is cutting down on their search engine optimisation costs.

This could lead to serious trouble for the business. If you think logically about this; during any recession people are going to think twice before spending money. This means that if you cut down on your search engine optimisation, your ranking results will drop down.

Think smart

Dropping down means that your business is no longer highly visible to potential customers. Once you have dropped off that crucial first page in the SERPs, your website will have less visitors. Fewer visitors mean that the chance of converting visitors into paying customers becomes far more difficult. Then search engine optimisation efforts have to be redoubled to be able to start the laborious climb back up the rankings.

It is usually far quicker to drop down in the ranking than it is to climb back up. It also takes much more of your resources to fight your way up the ranking than it took to stay static and highly visible. Using resources that could be utilised for other aspects of the business can have long-term repercussions.

Therefore, in reality you should not be cutting your SEO and marketing efforts during a recession. You should be redoubling your efforts to stay competitive for fewer available customers.

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