Essex SEO Blog

Why am I not ranking for my keywords

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:46:00 GMT

Why am I not ranking for my keywords
I often get asked "Why is my website not ranking for my keywords" and thought it would make a good blog.Firstly one page can not rank well for hundreds of keywords or locations. Preferably you need to target one to three keywords including the location for each page. Each page, from the titles, page descriptions, and content need to be unique and your keywords need to be present.Only go for keywords actually describing your business as you want to bring relevant traffic to your website. If someone is searching for second hand cars, then they want to buy a second hand car not a motor bike or the latest Audi just released.Whether search engines change their way of returning results or not, you can be sure to perform well if you follow these steps:-Page TitleThe page title needs to be kept under 70 characters. Aim for only 3 long tail keywords and ensure your most important keyword is at the beginning of the sentence.Meta DescriptionThe meta description should be under 150 characters and only have two of the keywords used in the page title incorporated in this description. Use compelling words to bring the searcher into your website.URLYour URL should include the first keyword you used in the page title. Each word needs to be separate i.e. www.EssexSEO.co.uk/essex/basildon_seo_company, notice how a (_) is used to seperate basildon from seo.Heading TagsI prefer to use only one H1 heading tag in a page, but it is ok to use two. Only use two keywords from your title tag within this text. Your page should also have H2 heading tags after the H1.Page ContentUse your keywords from your page title at least three or four times throughout the page content. Use it in a conversational way, it also helps to bold or underline the keywords.Internal LinksCreate a couple of links from your landing page to other pages within your website, using the keywords you are targeting for those pages. Remember to write a small paragraph introducing that product or service and place your link within this text.ImagesImages within the page should have their file name match only one of the keywords in the title tag. Again each word needs to be separated by a _ i.e Christmas_trees.Cross Linking PagesRemember to have at least three internal links within your website linking to the page you are optimising, including the keywords within the link.Meta KeywordsThese are no longer that important but I still like to put in a couple of keywords, the business name and address.If you have not followed these steps, that is why your website is not ranking well within the search engines for your keywords.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

What is Penguin and how will it Affect my Website.

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:50:00 GMT

What is Penguin and how will it Affect my Website.
On April 24th 2012 Google released Penguin. Penguin is here to deal with over optimised web pages and their ability to turn up in Google search results. Penguin will rid us of websites with keywords stuffed into them, duplicated content and misleading, hidden and cloaked links.So how can you tell if you have been hit by the Penguin update and what should you do about it if you have?Take a look at your website analytics and compare your organic search traffic from Google a few days before and the days since the update on the 24th April. Google also released an update to Panda on the 19th April, targeting low quality websites. If you have a drop in traffic before the 19th you have a Panda problem, if you saw a drop from the 24th you have a Penguin problem. If however, your traffic levels have remained the same then you weren't impacted by the updates. If you are one of the lucky ones and you have seen a spike in traffic, you are benefitting from the updates and you're actually now swiping some of the traffic that other wise would have gone to the over optimised websites.To make a come back after the Penguin update, you will have to clean up your website and lose the over optimisation. Here are a few things you can do:Verify your Google Webmaster Account:If you haven't already done this do it now. Google may have sent you messages regarding your spamming behaviour, but if you have never verified your account you have no idea whether these messages are there.Google are trying their hardest to notify people if they are breaking Google Guidelines, giving the website owner a chance to make changes before they get penalised.If you have any messages from Google, work through them correcting any issues Google have pointed out to you.Google's 'Webmaster Quality Guidelines':Read Google's 'Webmaster Quality Guidelines' and check your site for instances where you may be participating in some spamming behaviour.Here are a few of the more well known things to check and sort out:

Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
Don't send automated queries to Google.
Don't load pages with irrelevant Keywords (keyword stuffing).
Don't create multiple pages, sub-domains, or domains duplicate content.
Don't create pages with malicious behaviour, such as phishing or installing viruses, Trojans or other bad ware.
Avoid doorway pages created just for search engines, or other cookie cutter approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

If any of the above are applicable to your website correct them now.If you have been hit by Penguin wrongly, you can't do anything about it as it is an automated update and not a manual one. However, if you feel your website has been unjustly penalised you can use this form to explain to Google why you shouldn't be considered a spammer. Google aren't the enemy, the spammers are. Be professional and polite when completing this form.Best Practice:Always create remarkable content that's written for your audience first and search engines second, and follow best practices to ensure that Google can easily crawl, understand, and index your content.Website owners who stick to genuine seo techniques and always keep Google's guidelines in the forefront of their minds should have no worries about getting penalised by any algorithm updates from Google.Have you been hit by the Penguin update?The Essex SEO Team

How to Stop over Optimising your Website and how to Really Improve your SEO Efforts

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:45:00 GMT

How to Stop over Optimising your Website and how to Really Improve your SEO Efforts
With the recent Panda and Penguin updates many websites have seen a drop in rankings as well as traffic. Panda is dealing with low quality websites whereas Penguin is dealing with over optimised sites.In this post we are dealing with the factors sending signals to Google that your website is over optimised.Many people new to search engine optimisation take optimisation too far. We've all done it! We optimise our title tags, fix our 404 errors, we jam as many keywords into the page and watch our traffic increase. Then we dive a bit deeper and get our canonical tags right, we reduce the size of our URLs and watch our traffic increase some more until we reach a point where traffic numbers level off. Now what do you do? Of course you start fiddling with your page titles and content again. With Google's Penguin update this is a waste of time, it always has been, but more so now.The must obvious over optimisation technique is keyword stuffing. This entails putting too many keywords into your page titles and jamming the same old keyword into your images, navigation links and throughout your content. Google appears to be focusing on the title tag, URL and the inbound anchor text. If they are all matching in an over optimised way, you will see a decrease in rankings and traffic.Google have been cracking down on link networks for a while. They are also devaluing links where the sites are related to each other. If you own a number of websites (say 50) and you are interlinking them, you could face a penalty or be de-indexed (kicked out of Google).You need to balance your link profile and not just submit to directories, or only target blog comments. If you stick with one area you could be seen as over optimising your website. The best way to get a better return on investment is to get creative and start producing unique high quality content for your website. Do not use it to spam the search engines but think of content which helps your visitor to solve a problem. Try and find a twist on describing your products so they don't match every other website out there selling the same thing, be unique. You don't have to write every day, but set a schedule and stick to it. New content gives Google a reason to keep coming back to your website and to index more of your pages. Each blog post tells Google you're trading, you're current and you're fresh.We often find the main keyword a client wants to go after is not the keyword that brings in the highest converting traffic, it is always a generic term know within their industry, such as 'SEO'. Creating blog content allows you to target longer tail keywords, which bring in fewer traffic but at least it is higher converting traffic (visitor to customer). Ask a friend or family member, who knows nothing about your industry to use Google to find and buy your product. Watch what they type within the search box, and how many times they change their search until they find what they are looking for. It can be a real eye opener! Everything thing they typed into that search box is a potential blog.You also get the opportunity to link back to older content that is still relevant, keeping it visible within Google and to your readers. Another benefit of creating content is it attracts natural links. If people like what you are writing they will share your content with their friends or associates, saving you the time and effort of also having to actively link build.By monitoring your analytics you can see which blog posts receive more visitors. This enables you to understand what it is your readers enjoy and find informative, allowing you to be more focussed when you are writing. You will then start producing quality content which your readers will want to link to. Blogging should be seen as a business asset. It generates links into your website from other websites or social media networks. This means your online business is not just reliant on visitors from Google.The EssexSEO TeamFurther readers:How to Improve Your SEO Efforts and Measure Content ROI

5 Easy Steps to Improve your Marketing Efforts and Increase Sales

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:09:00 GMT

5 Easy Steps to Improve your Marketing Efforts and Increase Sales
How can you possibly know how well your marketing efforts are doing if you do not measure their out comes. You can also only improve your marketing campaigns if you know the type of responses you receive.Data you should be tracking to make improvements to your marketing campaigns:-1. Referral WebsitesKeep an eye on your top 10 referrers. Your referrers are websites other than your own which bring traffic to your services/product pages. Your blog can also be considered a referrer as you should be using it to push your service/product pages.If you notice one referrer (where you may have placed an advert or written a guest blog) brings you more traffic than the others, put more time and effort into that referrer. If on the other hand, you have paid for an advert, or created a blog, and you expect it to be within your top 10 referrers, and it is not, you need to rework your strategy, or realise this source is of no interest to your potential customers and focus your efforts elsewhere.2. Social MediaSocial media is used by companies to build brand awareness and to engage with potential and current customers.There are many social media applications but Twitter and Facebook seem to be the most popular at the time of writing. Both systems have analytical data available once you reach a certain amount of followers.By finding out which one is working best for you, you will be able to determine which one to allocate more time to.You want to measure:-

How many people are interacting with you
How many people are Liking you
How many are Following you
What is your reach (how many people your tweets or facebook conversations are reaching)

Do not drop any social media areas that are not performing as well as others, they all give some level of benefit to your business. 3. Your BlogWhat is the point in spending hours churning our blogs without knowing what is working? By measuring your blog performance you can identify which content your readers are interested in and what keeps them coming back. This will help you fine tune your articles giving your reader exactly what they want.You want to measure:-

RSS subscriber list
Page visits
Comments
Shares
Likes
Tweets

4. TrafficAn analytics program installed in to your website will give you traffic data. From here you will be able to work out your usual traffic numbers. If you spot spikes and dips in traffic numbers you will want to know what caused them. Maybe you created an eBook which brought in more traffic than usual. In this case it would be prudent of you to create a similar eBook. Whatever causes your traffic to spike, do some more of the same as your followers are interested in what you are doing.5. EmailsIt's amazing how many companies send emails out then sit there and cross their fingers.You really should be analyzing:-

Number of emails being opened
Number of clicks on call to action links
Number of leads generated
Number of sales generated

Firstly this will help you determine if your emails are eagerly awaited or go straight to spam.Once you have these measurements you can start working on improving your email marketing efforts. You'll be able to find out if your emails with an offer involved work better than an email with a promotion and so on. Tweak your emails each time to see if your numbers improve.In the long run it pays off to look at the data available to you. Sit back with a large cup of tea, get use to using spreadsheets and feel confident your marketing efforts are working for you. The better you get the more leads and customers you will see coming your way.The Essex SEO TeamWhy not Like us on Facebook to find out more about improving your website.

Increase Your Sales Through The Internet Today

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:27:00 GMT

Increase Your Sales Through The Internet Today
There are now many ways consumers can find your product. Your website will still be the main focus of your customers, but new customers can be reached by using social media (Facebook and Twitter) as well as taking advantage of affiliate programs (Amazon).Facebook and Twitter are free to use enabling you to test the waters before you consider paying for adverts. Affiliates will charge you a fee, usually a percentage of your sale. However, affiliates such as Amazon have big budgets and can reach many consumers while you build the reputation of your own website and social media efforts.Here are 5 things you need to do:1. Start Today

Start using social media and affiliate programs to build connections.
Work on building reviews of your products and your company.
Stay in contact with your customers and make them happy.

2. Stay OrganisedConsumers have the following concerns about buying from you.

Time it takes to process their order
Delivery
Customer Service
Return Policy
Price

All of these things affect your sales, yet the majority of smaller businesses focus on prices thinking this will bring the masses.Make sure you are the best at all the above bullet point. 3. Bring Them BackWhat do you have in place to bring customers back to your website?

Loyalty programs?
Rewards?
Discounts?

All the above points bring customers back to buy more from you. Remember the old rule, 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your sales. If you are under that 20% then something is wrong, if you are over it, congratulations and keep up the good work.4. Keeping TrackKnow where your sales are coming from.

Twitter
Facebook
Google organic search results
Google paid advert
Affiliate programs

Where and when are people buying your products? Google analytics can deal with traffic coming from organic search and paid advertising. Your content manager should be able to deal with movement and clicks within your website. However, you will need to invest in an analytics program which can deal with affiliate programs.The more you know about where your customers are coming from the more you can invest in those areas and ditch the avenues which don't work.5. BewareNever lose site of the fact the social media sites and affiliate programs you are using are also your competition. They have bigger budgets and know more about selling and marketing than you do.It is more important your website ranks well for your products. Social media and affiliates should be helping you sell more, not getting ahead of your website in the search engines for your products.Things change, you need to keep up with that change and welcome the challenge it brings to your business. What are you doing to make sure you don't get left behind?The Essex SEO Team

Improve Google rankings

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:52:00 GMT

Improve Google rankings
Do you want to know how to improve your Google Rankings?Do you want to know how to turn more of your visitors into customers?Do you need keyword advice?Join us on Facebook and ask any question you have about making improvements to your website and one of our team will try to help you out.Click here to join us in FacebookThe Essex SEO Team

SEO and its Benefits

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:24:00 GMT

SEO and its Benefits
Many business owners still do not understand the benefit SEO can bring to their business. Listed below are a few benefits:

Targeted Traffic - SEO increases the number of visitors to your website who are actively searching for your service or product.
Promotion that doesn't sleep - Once implemented the changes remain long after the SEO is completed. Unlike advertising, once you stop paying your advertisement dissappears.
Increase brand visibility - SEO and social media help brand awareness by getting you seen out there where your customers are.
High ROI - SEO brings you a higher Return On your Investment than any comparable form of marketing.
Higher Sales - SEO brings a higher quality of customer to your website in turn leading to higher sales.
Faster, smaller pages - SEO will reduce page load times. Your customers gets to see you quicker and your server costs reduce.
Long term positioning - Once you make it to the top spot in the Search Engines simple maintenance should keep you there.
Cost-effective - SEO is among the most cost-effective ways of marketing.
Cross-browser compatibility - Not everyone uses the same browser to visit the internet, SEO will ensure your website can be seen by the main browsers.
Navigable by the search engines - All links should function correctly and all pages should be accessible to the search engines, thus making your website easy for the seach engines to index and categorize.
Usability - Observing basic optimisation guidelines should mean visitors have a more pleasant user experience.
Goals - Identifies your goals and actions them
Challenges - Identifies your challenges and responds to them

We have been design websites and implemented search engine optimisation since 1998. We are a small business and plan to keep it that way. We understand how important it is for small businesses to get new sales at the lowest possible cost.

Request a quote

The Essex SEO Team

Increase Your Website Conversions

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:48:00 GMT

Increase Your Website Conversions
What is a conversion rate? The conversion rate of your website is the number of visitors making a purchase, signing up for your services or completing a form. This should be your number one priority as it increases your profits. Inbound marketing such as search engine optimisation and using social media help greatly with getting people to your website. Calls to action (buy button) help to convert those visitors into paying customers.Increase your website conversions with these few helpful tricks: Make sure you have a user-friendly designYour website design has to be user friendly. Visitors need to be able to move through your website with ease and not become frustrated. If a visitor becomes frustrated because he or she can not navigate your website, your visitor will leave without spending any money.It is well worth hiring a professional web designer who will design a site which is suitable for your potential customer base as well as having a focus study performed before the website goes live to spot any problems. Convey trust and reliability to your customers Most new visitors to your website will be looking for trust indicators before he or she will make their first purchase or contact you. Trust indicators can be something as simple as having your address and telephone number listed in your contact page. Usually before a person purchases he or she will want to see a secure purchase certificate such as an SSL certificate. As well as the above, make your returns policy and delivery charges clear and easy to find. Making it as simple as possible to return goods back to you will also instil trust. Know Your Audience Your audience will vary with each offer you make. Some visitors may be looking for information while other visitors are ready to buy. Ensure you know your audience and provide the right content and design to attract visitors to your website. Provide insights into how you can help your visitor once he or she has reached your website. Keep Track of Your Analytics Keeping an eye on your analytics gives you important information about your pages and how your visitor interacts with your website. Google analytics, which is free, allows you to see page for page, exit and bounce rates, how visitors more throughout your website and much more. Do not waste this information and use it to make improvements to your website.We hope you found this blog of use. If you know of any simple conversions that have worked well for you please feel free to share below. The Essex SEO Team

What to do if you are removed from Twitter search results

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:46:00 GMT

What to do if you are removed from Twitter search results
If you find yourself removed from Twitter search, Twitter recommends you visit their help centre before contacting its support team. Some other reasons you may have a low or even no visibility in Twitter's search result could include the following; we suggest you work through these issue's then do some troubleshooting at Twitters help centre before contacting their support team:1.) If you have just set up your account it will take a few days to be indexed. Be patient.2.) Twitter gives search result preference to users with a complete name, username, and bio in their profile. Make sure your profile is completed.3.) Twitter includes those with the best reputations in their search. To be considered the best you will need to interact with other users, chatting to them, sharing their content and in return getting your content shared. You need to be consistent and conscientious. Although you may not be seen in the search results, you will be seen in a timeline if you @ reply that person/company. However, until your visibility is resolved your @ reply will not be seen in Twitter's search results. Twitter is not doing this to make your life harder. They are trying to create a pleasant environment for their users. Twitter has filters in place which will remove content they do not feel is of good quality. Being vulgar, harassing people or just being unsavoury can also get you removed from the search results.If you have been filtered out of Twitter search results and you are not an offender of any of the above please let us know in the comments below.The Essex SEO Team

6 Ways Twitter could see you as a Spammer

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:29:00 GMT

6 Ways Twitter could see you as a Spammer
For those of you new to Twitter you need to be aware of certain behaviours which will see you removed from Twitter's search. Twitter has to identify spammers and remove them from their system to allow the rest of us to enjoy this free tool that allows us to reach out to so many other businesses and individuals. If they didn't and we all suffered being spammed we would all jump ship and Twitter would disappear.Make sure you are not spoiling Twitter and try to follow these rules.1. Repeatedly posting the same link or tweet.We have probably all done this when we first arrived on Twitter. What with everything else you have to do to promote your business, it is hard to find even more time for tweets. No wonder lots of us occasionally dip into an application such as Timely. This allows you to schedule lots of tweets and links, which it will send out several times a day until your schedule is empty. Do not get into the habit of posting the same old tweet and link as Twitter will consider you a spammer. Have normal conversations and try to vary your timed tweets and your links. And remember Twitter, just like Google, does not want duplicate content.2. Aggressively following and un-following people.Did you rush into Twitter and follow as many people as possible without really thinking whether these were people or companies you really want to follow? Best practice is to find followers organically. Start small, find a few people you like the look of and follow them. Have a conversation and check out who they follow. From there you can start to follow people they recommend. If someone is tweeting stuff you find boring or they start to irritant the life out of you then un-follow them. There is absolutely no point in following loads of people in the hope they will follow you back. You need to work out who may be interested in your services or product and if it will be of help to that person/company.3. Abusing trending topics or hash tags.These are words with # in front of them. Over using # can get you banned from Twitters search results. Only use them when you really need to, either because you are promoting something or you want to get found within a subject that is trending; only join in if you have something to add to that trend.4. Sending automated tweets and replies.Automated tweets and replies ring alarms as being spam. Don't you prefer talking to someone who is actually there? Your business will do far better when you spend the time sending a personalised message, instead of sending the same thing to everyone who followers you or retweets one of your tweets.5. Using applications to post similar messages based around your keywords.Twitter will interpret this as attempting to game the search results and dominate them with low quality content. Content quality matters.6. Using multiple accounts to tweet the same message.This can happen by mistake when you use multiple accounts or use a third party application such as tweet deck. You end up retweeting the same messages across all of your accounts. Make sure you put some personal time in each day and only provide content that is of interest to the followers for each account. As stated above, Tweeter as well as Google are trying to combat duplicated content, don't let this silly mistake catch you out.Hope you find this blog of help.The Essex SEO TeamFurther Reading: What to do if you are removed from Twitter search results

How to Improve Your SEO efforts and Measure Content ROI Vol. 1

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:31:00 GMT

How to Improve Your SEO efforts and Measure Content ROI Vol. 1
Business BloggingBusiness blogging helps your websites position in the search engines, and establishes you as a thought leader in your industry. Other benefits can be, improvements to your search engine optimisation efforts, lead generation, social media reach and lead nurturing.The only way you will find out if your blogs are helping your business and not a complete waste of time is to measure the success of your blog over time. Measuring the following metrics will help you. Page Views and Overall Traffic: Using a service such as Google Analytics, which is free, you can start to measure page views and incoming traffic to your website. As each one of your blog articles sits on its own page within your website, you can drill down to page views for each individual article as well as measuring the entire blog. This measurement alone will tell you which subjects have been more popular with your readers, helping you plan your future blogs. Your aim is to see page views increase steadily over time. This increase will show you your blog is effectively contributing to exposing your business to a wider audience, known as reach. Keyword/Search Rankings: One of the main benefits of a business blog is to help your rankings within the search engines. Search Engines are always looking for new content their users may find helpful. By producing blogs on a regular basis gives the search engines a reason to keep coming back to your website. A blog also helps you target more keywords relevant to your business. Make sure you are tracking your rankings, you want to be climbing the search engine results and appearing for more keywords relevant to your business with each new blog you post. Increasing your search rankings will increase your traffic, leading to increased leads. Inbound Links: Inbound links are yet another great way to find out how well your blogs are doing. People only link to your pages if they think your article is worthwhile and of interest to their own audience. By finding out which of your blogs has the highest inbound links, will give you an indication of which articles are most popular. More of these types of articles and you'll really start to grow in popularity. Conversions: How well is your blog contributing to lead generation? The only point to your website content is to create leads which you can then convert into sales. If your blog is not creating any leads, start adding a call to action to each blog. This call to action should lead through to a landing page which sells a service or product, or gives away something free like a downloadable eBook that gives your visitor some valuable information. Make sure you are tracking how many people click on your call to action compared to how many actually complete your conversion form (landing page). Comments and Social Media Shares: Social media sharing is another great way to find out how successful your blog is. Allowing your readers to comment about your blog gives you insight into how they actually feel about what is written. Always leave blog comments open and make your social sharing buttons easily visible to your reader.In our next article we will be covering measurement tracking for eBooks and Whitepapers.If you wish to be emailed when our blog is updated please subscribe on the right hand side of this page.The EssexSEO Team

The Customer Experience and Improved Conversions via Your Website

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:39:00 GMT

The Customer Experience and Improved Conversions via Your Website
How to Improve the Customers Experience when Visiting Your Website on Mobile and Tablets.Many businesses are still ignoring the importance of allowing their websites to be seen on mobile phones and tablets. Studies suggest mobile is driving 10 percent of visitors to ecommerce websites, although, conversion rates are still lower than a website displayed on a desktop computer. The best way to increase your conversion rate is to involve your customers throughout the development of your online business.Here are five tips we hope will help you out.1. Meet your customers expectationsCustomers tend to like seeing the same key functionality or services they see on your main website. You may have to rethink your design to ensure these functions are visible when using mobiles and tablets.2. Knowing how your customer uses mobileMany users tend to use their mobile phones when in store. They will be checking your competitions price's against yours. You need to work out what you can offer the user to keep them in your store and buying your products.3. Asking for too much informationMobiles do not come with a keyboard or mouse attached. It is very frustrating for a user to try and complete forms whilst using a mobile, often users will give and complete the form when they get home; that is if they haven't already forgotten about you. Find some way to remember your visitors and welcome them back, identify they are using a mobile devise and find an easy way for them to get to your purchase or order button.4. Data allowanceThe majority of users are going to have data restrictions. Do not frustrate customers with unnecessary page loads. Think about the best way for a mobile user to work their way around your website. 5. TestAsk some customers to test your website, be that on a desktop, mobile or tablet. It is the best way to find out how users interact with your website. You will then be able to streamline or remove any pitfalls.If you want a mobile website design DR Adept's prices started from 695.00.The EssexSEO TeamFurther Reading : 12 Tips to Optimise Your Customers Experience

How to Reduce Bounce Rates and Increase Conversion Rates

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:48:00 GMT

How to Reduce Bounce Rates and Increase Conversion Rates
Do you often wonder how to keep visitors on your website longer once they have clicked through from a search result? Hopefully we can answer that question for you.Everyone focuses on getting their website to the top of Google, often forgetting about the design, layout, content and the customers experience once they click through to a website.When visitors find nothing of interest on a website, they leave, this is known as a bounce.Reducing your websites bounce rate is the first step towards improving the performance of your website and increasing your conversion rate.First you need to analyse the bounce rate of certain traffic sources, then improve the bounce rates of the highest converting traffic sources such as visitors coming from:

Search engine traffic
Email marketing campaigns
Affiliate campaigns

You can ignore bounce rates from unqualified sources such as:

Unknown referrer sites
Social networking sites
Random directory sites

Website PagesConsidering how you design your pages can really make a difference to your bounce rate, below are some helpful tips to help you reduce your bounce rate and increase your conversions. Headlines: Make sure your heading matches or refers to the place where your visitor has just come from, or match the ad copy that drove the click.Call to action: Provide a clear call to action and tell the visitor what you want them to do. An example of a good call to action: "Only 99 per room per night at Buckingham Palace, London. Book Now" A bad example being: "Cheap hotels in London. Choose from 300 hotels in London England.The first example tells the visitor what they are going to get and how to get it, the second example gives the visitor too many choices.Be clear and concise: Don't be vague or general, write clear, specific and targeted content aimed at your visitor. Your visitor is here for a specific reason, don't waste their time.Hierarchy: Place the most important information at the beginning of paragraphs and bullets.Keep it simple: Remove all distractions, links and where possible menus. Ask for only enough information to complete the desired action.TestingYou only know if it works if you test it then test it some more. The purpose of testing your landing pages is to reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.As Google offers a free tool, we thought we would give a basic overview of setting up A/B split testing on Google Website Optimizer:

Create a campaign to test landing pages against each other.
Upload the URL of the original page that you're testing.
Upload the URLs of the other landing pages you want to test against the original.
Copy the JavaScript codes provided by Google and paste them in to the relevant pages you're trying to test.
Send at least 500 visitors to the primary URL and Google will separate those visitors randomly for you to test the performance of the pages in a non-biased way. You can do this by using AdWords, email campaigns or even affiliates to send traffic from specific keywords through the funnel.

Once you've tested several landing pages, try improving them by testing different versions of the best performing pages.Real Gap went from a bounce rate of 25.44% to 18.24% after adding just a call to action. One simple change can make all the difference.The Essex SEO Team

8 Link Building Tactics to Boost Your SEO Strategy

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:16:00 GMT

8 Link Building Tactics to Boost Your SEO Strategy
Link Building is one of the many areas of SEO that most small business owners' dread. It is one of the most important factors within SEO in helping your website rank well for your keywords. You do have some control over links coming into your website, but you also need to be aware it is up to the website owner who they choose to give links to.Below are 8 tactics that will help you on your way to becoming a great link builder:-1. Submitting your website to directories:You are not going to get great link juice from a directory but it is a good way to jump start your link building efforts. Google at the time of writing does not mind directories where there is a human element involved. In other words, you can submit to a directory, but it is at the website owners discretion if they think your website is relevant and good enough to be listed in their directory. Some webmasters may charge for the service of reviewing your website but this charge does not guarantee you a listing.2. Content: The creation of content to display your expertise in your industry is a great way to getting links into your site. Make sure the content you create is of value to your visitor's and gives good information and advice. Only when your audience thinks your content is worth while will they start linking to you. Do not create content for the sake of building links (link bait). Content that typically gets shared a lot tends to be infographics, viral videos, even being controversial about your subject. We always recommend a blog which is on your website and not on a free platform such as Wordpress because you want the traffic coming to your website and linking to your website, not to Wordpress.3. Networking: Find out who are the industry leaders in your field. Start following their blogs and connect with them in Twitter and Facebook. Start chatting to them, and mention their blogs within yours. They will start to notice you and will be more inclined to link back to you if they feel your content is relevant and of a similar standard to their own articles.4. Optimise Social A link is a link and the search engines are taking stock of social media activity. Use your profiles within Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc carefully, always put your website URL into your profile. Your aim is always to get people back to your website and purchasing your products or services. 5. Ask for a Link: It is ok to approach companies who you feel are relevant to your website and ask them for a link back to your site. I much prefer to give a link when a company approaches me telling me they have already given me a link because they found my content useful. Instead of saying they will give me a link if I give them one.If someone has mentioned your company in their blog or a news article but has not supplied a link back to you, it is appropriate for you to contact the author and ask for a link to be put into that article to your website.6. News ReleasesNews releases are great for telling people about new products or services you are offering. They are even better for link building purposes, especially if you have new data or research reports you might want to share. You can submit to a news release distribution service who will distribute your article to many worthwhile sites, each giving a link back to your website. The majority of these services charge but there are a few free ones available.7. CollaborationsAs an example a window fitting company may work with a builder, roofer and electrician depending on what the home owner needs. The window fitter is an expert at window fitting and may not wish to employee people in the other fields, but will have built up a relationship with other merchants to make sure his customers only have to come to him. The window fitting company should be happy to link out, as a recommendation, to companies he already works with.8. Guest BloggingGuest blogging is a fantastic way to getting more links into your website. You get access to more readers who may wish to link to you from their own websites, all you have to do is create more content. However, it works both ways. If you are running out of idea's for blogs you can always accept a guest blogger to get your hands on new fresh content which will earn links to your website.The Essex SEO Team

7 Ways to Optimize Twitter for Search

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:25:00 GMT

7 Ways to Optimize Twitter for Search
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a crucial foundation for your website, it helps you get found within the search engines by your customer's. To build on that foundation you need to start applying link building and social media. In all cases you need to take your keyword research from your original SEO and apply that to your link building and social media activities. As time goes no you should be looking at your website analytic's and deciding which other keywords you should be targeting to get found within the search engines.One of the easiest places to start is to optimise your Twitter presence for search.Here are 7 Ways to Search Engine Optimise Your Twitter Presence1. Organic RankingThis time last December, both Google and Bing confirmed that tweeted links are a signal for a search engine's organic rankings. Create a link to your blog posts and other content on your website from Twitter.2. AuthorityGoogle does not know who you are, the only way they can measure how important you are was to implement an algorithm that checks the authority of the user tweeting the link. Build your reach with high quality followers and help boost your tweets' rankings.3. KeywordsThe keywords you use for your website may be too long for Twitter. By using various tools you can create a subset of keywords which are shorter and easier to include in your tweet. Use these keywords throughout the day to boost your rankings. As an example our website would target search engine optimisation, but within Tweeter we would be better off using SEO.4. Re-TweetsUser's who wish to re-tweet your tweet will often place their name within the re-tweet "RT @username". You need to create tweets which allow for your keywords to be included without the danger of them being removed by the re-tweeter. Leave at least 10-20 characters at the end of your tweet to cover this.5. QualityCreate quality content which will appeal to the influencers within Tweeter. The search engines will be able to register the value of other authority holders and correlate them with the value of the link you posted. Tweeting great content that appeals to influencers will boost your optimisation efforts.6. User NameAlways try to use your company name as your username. If this is not available choose a unique and professional username that does not include numbers. Spammers tend to use numbers at the end of their names (e.g. @Name123456) because of this Google now tends to ignore usernames with any numbers in them.7. Twitter BioDon't over use keywords within your Twitter bio. One important keyword is better than none or too many. Make your bio attention-grabbing so that users are inclined to click on the link.The Essex SEO Team

Do Directory Links Help My website

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:16:00 GMT

Do Directory Links Help My website
Most SEO's agree directories have never fallen off the radar of good SEO practice. Although some SEO's hate directories while others love them.The Panda update which wreaked havoc on article directories and content farms, had the opposite effect on directories which seem to be making a strong comeback. Often I see Yell, The Best Of and a few others out ranking businesses within the search engines results pages, which can be a little frustrating as they have bigger budgets then most small businesses and I really can not see the point of having a directory within a directory which is what Google is.So you want to know how to identify a good directory. They are the one's whose owners are closely involved with the website, making it clear they review all submissions and inclusion isn't guaranteed. The majority of good directories now charge a fee to have your website reviewed before the owners approve your website for inclusion in their directory. This reimburses the website owners time in checking your website. Such human edited directories strive to maintain a certain standard at all times. This gives the search engines confidence of the quality of the links contained therein. As a result, manual directories have passed the test of time and continue to offer value to the sites contained in their directories.As long as directory links are part of a diverse linking profile, they will cause no harm to your website. However, be careful of the automated directories who auto-accept all linking requests as these are no different to link farms which should be avoided at all costs.Directory links may not bring you over night success but they will add stability to your long term rankings.The Essex SEO Team

301 Redirects for Search Engine Optimisation Do not Pass Social Shares

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:57:00 GMT

301 Redirects for Search Engine Optimisation Do not Pass Social Shares
When redesigning your website or closing one URL and starting with a new one, to not lose the search engine optimisation work you have put into your website pages, 301 redirects are used to carry such things as link juice through to the new pages or new website. When using a 301 redirect, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration to ensure the website change does not effect your websites lead nurturing efforts. One of these is the value of social sharing.We closed a client's website and used 301 redirects to their new website which was under a different URL. Before we did this we took a number of measurements including number of tweets, Facebook likes, LinkedIn shares, Google+. We did not know what the effect on social shares would be as social sharing is relatively new to our clients.After the 301 redirect was in place, the shares from Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and Twitter did not transfer to the new website, although when clicking on the old share or tweet you would be brought through to the new website, but the social share value did not pass to the new website.However, after the 301 redirect was in place, any time someone retweeted the old tweet with a link to the old website in it, those tweets where counted. This meant although we had lost the social sharing value from all the tweets before the 301 redirect, Twitter was able to read the 301 redirect and follow it when the old tweets are still in circulation.The same can't be said for Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn, it doesn't appear at the time of writing they can read or follow 301 redirects. We hope you found this of interest.The EssexSEO Team

5 Website Metrics Every Small Business Owner Should Be Tracking

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:48:00 GMT

5 Website Metrics Every Small Business Owner Should Be Tracking
Every small business owner with a website should be measuring their websites performance. To help get you started we have put together 5 website metrics every small business owner should be tracking, aside from the obvious key metrics of leads and customers.Bounce RateThe bounce rate of any given page is the percentage of people leaving your website after they viewed it. A page with a high bounce rate is performing poorly and you need to do something about it, by keeping a poorly performing page you are driving people away from your business. Compare your pages with high bounce rates to pages with low bounce rates to find out what people do and don't like about your website.Below are average bounce rates for four different types of websites:Retail websites 20% - 40%Simple landing pages 70% - 90%Services for sale websites 30% - 50% Content websites 40% -60%Conversion RateThe conversion rate is the percentage of people who completed an action on that page, such as filling in a form, purchasing goods or services. Pages with high conversion rates are performing well; some retail businesses have reported conversion rates of at least 16%, just to give you an idea of what you can aim for. If the traffic coming into your conversion pages, also known as landing pages, does not convert that page has no value and your ROI will suck.Traffic SourcesYour traffic sources tell you where your sites traffic is coming from. This is a great way to find out how people heard about your website. If you have incorporated search engine optimisation you will see traffic coming from Google, Yahoo or Bing (organic). If you have been using social media then you will see traffic coming from those social media websites. If you pay for links, such as Yell, FSB or Chamber of Commerce you will also see traffic coming from them.By measuring your traffic source you will be able to see how your various marketing channels are driving traffic to your website.KeywordsYour websites keywords will show you which terms people are actually using to come into your website, the top few are usually variations of your company name, after this will be listed other keywords where you can gain insight into how people are actually finding you. Hopefully the keywords you are targeting are showing up, but there may be keywords within this metric you haven't even thought about. Create content for keywords showing up in this list which you haven't already targeted.VisitorsConcentrate on unique visitors. These visitors give all your metrics meaning as you will be comparing each against your unique visitors to see whether your website is improving month on month.We hope you found this information useful and it gives you some insight into how well your website is actually working for you.The Essex SEO Team

How Do I keep my Facebook Likes

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:18:00 GMT

How Do I keep my Facebook Likes
When Face Book allowed companies to place the "like" button on their websites companies started to obsess over getting liked by everyone and anyone. The more likes the better, but what good are likes if they are not turning into customers. Without leads and customers your business is over.By keeping your fans engaged you will generate leads that will eventually turn into customers. Here at Essex SEO we work with our clients to help them manage their Face Book pages and have found the following 6 ways can turn Face Book "Likes" into loyal fansKeep it Current Your Face Book page has to be updated regularly to keep your fans coming back for more. Remember the old saying "Out of sight, out of mind". Share your blog post, eBooks, new products or services or anything in the news relevant to your business that your fans may be interested in.Be Yourself Always remember how people tell you they know the owner of the local pub and how he always remembers them and gives them special treats. People like to connect with people, not a faceless brand. Face book requires you to set up your business page through your personal Face Book page. Be yourself and connect with your fans, make them feel special.Talk to your fans Don't use Face Book to promote your products or services 24/7. Ask questions, chat with your fans. Respond to positive comments as well as negative comments.Create Your Own Community Let your fans ask questions for other fans to answer, allow them to post things of interest onto your wall. Always keep up with the conversations going on, but don't take over. This builds trust and your fans will start spreading the word about you and your products.Call To Action Likes are great, but you need them to become customers. Start small and create a simple call to action getting visitors to "like" your page. Once they "like" you try a short sign up form for your newsletter or blog. If these all work then you can try out a longer form for an eBook or whitepaper. All the while you are collecting contacts who are giving you permission to contact them about your product or service.Walk before you run Take it slow; if you go in too fast you could end up being over whelmed and unable to communicate fast enough. Take it at a steady pace up to a level you can handle. Once you're comfy you can expand your efforts and take advantage of other marketing opportunities Face Book provides.We hope you found this post helpful, if you have any further questions please comment below.Brought to you by our Search Engine Optimisation EssexTeam

3 Steps to Making Inbound Marketing Work for You

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:45:00 GMT

3 Steps to Making Inbound Marketing Work for You
Inbound marketing is all about getting the right customer to come to you. Traditional methods such as TV, radio, print etc are still used, but they interrupt the consumer, whereas inbound marketing is about being there when the consumer is looking for your product or service. This works because consumers are no longer passive recipients to your marketing messages. They are out there looking at products and services; investigating and researching before they make contact with you. The economy is also getting tougher so the consumer is really thinking hard before making their purchase.Inbound marketing allows the consumer to be in charge. For you to retain some measure of control over converting them into a sale you need to become visible, by having your content answering the consumer's questions and moving them through your website the way you need them to and persuading them to click your sales button.Below are 3 components of inbound marketing. If you have not already implemented these, you should start now.SEO Search engine optimisation needs to be incorporated into your website to ensure your site is search engine friendly, and appropriate keywords are being used per page. This helps the search engines place you in the correct search engine results and helps your rankings improve. You can also target longer tail keywords, which will have less traffic but will be far more targeted and will have a better conversion rate. Search engine optimisation places you in front of your customers who are already out there looking for your product or service.Link building is also apart of search engine optimisation, its all about building links from other quality websites into your site. Each link is still considered a vote of confidence in your business and sends a signal to the search engines that you can be trusted. It also helps consumers find you in different places helping to drive more traffic to your business.Link building is also good for getting recognised for targeted keywords, by ensuring your keyword is within the anchor text.If you have just designed a website and submitted it to the search engines without incorporating search engine optimisation you will be invisible to your audience.Social MediaSocial Media allows consumers to express their opinions about companies, products and services. This allows you to target your audience on a one to one basis, creating brand loyalty and brand advocates. Face Book likes and Followers within Twitter are people who are actually happy for you to talk to them, as soon as they like or follow you they are giving you permission to tell them about your business.There are two negatives to social media, the first is getting the balance right, do too little and your audience forgets about you, do too much and with one click of the mouse button you are unliked or unfollowed. The second negative is the time and dedication you have to put in. Determine a strategy that fits your business and your customers. Choose the right social media for your business. FaceBook tends to be business to customer, LinkedIn is Business to Business and Twitter is where you can actually pick the companies you want to target and start talking to them and driving them to your website as soon as they follow you. Social Media is the one area you can not copy the competition as you need to find your own voice, your own goals and develop relationships with your customers.Social Media is also an area where links can be built into your website, although they do not use your targeted keywords.Content MarketingContent marketing includes website content, articles, whitepapers, infographics, videos, blog posts etc. Your content has to show off your industry expertise, building trust and becoming a valuable resource. The more relevant, problem solving and engaging the content the more benefit it will bring to your customer as well as to yourself.As an example a builder could help homeowners save money during this prolonged economic decline, by producing a blog detailing which task's the homeowner can do themselves, and how they would go about doing the work and at which point they should call a builder in.You need to be producing a steady stream of content to keep visitors coming back to your website. The easiest way to start creating content is to answer the questions your customers often ask your sales team, or think about what you would want to know if you were not part of your industry and wished to use your services or product. The more questions answered before the customer makes contact the faster they will turn into a paying customer when they contact you or allow you to contact them.Your website should be considered the hub of your business marketing efforts. The more channels you employee to bring traffic to your website, the more landing pages you have selling your products or service the more likely you are to generate leads. The EssexSEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

Your Landing Page Has 8 Seconds to Capture Your Visitors Attention

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Your Landing Page Has 8 Seconds to Capture Your Visitors Attention
You have only 8 seconds to capture your visitor's attention when they come into your landing page.Placement of your call to action on your landing page is the most important thing for the success of your conversion rate. A well designed landing page attracts attention swiftly and maintains the interest of your reader.Everyone has little time these days, so your landing page has to make a great first impression to keep your visitor interested.Keep it Short: Keep it short and sweet and get to the point. Your copy has to make an impact. The visitor has clicked onto the page because they like the call to action within your page title and description. Now reconfirm your proposal, making it attractive and offering a solution to the visitors needs whilst leading them to the call to action.Landing Page Layout: Most popular landing page layouts are single column, two columns, three columns, box style or postcard format. The most popular landing pages when dealing with B2B is the box style, whereas, B2C work well with postcard style, single column layouts or two column layouts.You only need one link: Website designers and clients always raise their eyebrows at this one. You only need one link on the page and that is your call to action.By removing all links your visitor can remain focused on the page and not wonder where the link will lead them.Don't make the visitor scroll: Nine out of ten brands create landing pages with the call to action above the fold. This way their visitor does not have to scroll down the screen to find out what it is you want them to do. If you can not keep your content to one page you can place your call to action at the top of the screen as well as at the bottom.However, when creating an eBook or downloadable white paper the call to action is always at the end of the page.Landing pages should be the hub of your business. The more landing pages you have the more likely you are to see conversions. It also enables you to connect with your audience at different stages in their sales process.Essex SEO has helped many clients create successful landing pages. If you wish to discuss your landing page options ask for David on 01268 456274.The Essex SEO Team.

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5 Reasons why you should not delete your blog posts

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:56:00 GMT

5 Reasons why you should not delete your blog posts
Some time back we decided to clean our website up and removed lots of old blog posts as we felt search engine optimisation and inbound marketing had moved on since the posts were written.However, by doing this we lost lots of inbound links, went down in the search engine results and managed to reduce other measurements we take. Thankfully this is our testing site so we were not overly worried about removing blog posts.We thought some of our readers may find our experience of benefit and have listed a few simple reasons why deleting blog posts are a really stupid idea. 1. SEO work lost. You are creating your blog to show off what an expert you are in your area so potential clients can see you know a thing or two about what they need. But it is also great for search engine optimisation (SEO). It is a great way to use lots of keywords to get your website ranking in more places your clients will be looking for you within the search engine results. Over time you start to see the benefits of your hard work paying off when your traffic start to increase and conversion rates improve. You would have to be insane to even think about deleting any of your blogs and lose all that SEO juice you worked so hard to gain.2. Inbound links lost Links to the content on your website are powerful influencers and increase your website's authority which leads to better ranking within the search engine results. When deleting blog posts any links you have generated will be lost. Even though the link may still be out there pointing to that post, it will not redirect on its own to another page on your website making it worthless.3. Loss of Lead Generation Opportunities Each blog post should have a call to action attached to it to generate leads. We have clients who still generate leads from older posts, each sale made reducing the cost associated with the time they spent creating the article for their blog.If your blog posts are still generating leads do not delete them.4. Wasting Time Your blog posts may not have cost you money if you are creating them yourself, but they have cost you time and effort to create to nurture and maintain a successful blog. Think about the time you have spent creating your content and put a price to it. Do you still want to delete it?5. Limit social media mentions and content sharing. Just because you think your content is old and passed its useful sell by date, it will always be new to someone who will want to share it or mention it within social media. Many times an old blog article has taken off again within social media.Someone who is well known can take the risk in deleting their blog posts, but if you are a small or micro business you can not afford to do this as every lead coming in through your website is too valuable to throw away.We hope you found this article of benefit.The Essex SEO Team

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Further reading Google Places How to Get Seen At the Top

Google Places How to Get Seen At the Top

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:01:00 GMT

Google Places How to Get Seen At the Top
Google places, formally know as Google Maps is a fantastic way of being seen at the top of the search engine results. Google often place their maps just below the paid listings but above the organic ones. If you have not incorporated SEO into your website yet, this is one area you can use to get to the top of the search engine results when Google display their maps. As an SEO at DR Adept part of my role is to optimise our clients company within Google Places.It appears Google is currently given priority listings to those companies who have fully completed their profile within Google Places. Now is the time to either set up a profile or go back to your current profile and make sure it is up to date. Below are a few simple steps to follow to ensure you are 100% complete.It is not guaranteed Google will award you with one of their little red balloons, enabling searchers to easily spot you on the Google map. But by following these steps you will give yourself a chance. You'll need to start by claiming your page if you don't already have one.1. Your Company Name List your company name with Google as it is seen in the real world. Do not add keywords or locations to your company name, because you will be violating Google guidelines, and it is probably the last you will be seen in the world of Google.2. Add Your Phone Number Use the telephone number you want people to contact you on. Add fax numbers as well if you have one. Make it easy for your potential clients and current customer to contact you. Often if I need to contact a supplier and I do not have their details on me, I search Google and get their telephone number from Google Places as I don't have to work my way through their website to their contact page.3. Add Your Email Address Add your business email address, not a personal one. Again making it that bit easier for your potential clients to contact you.4. Add Your Website URL Don't forget to add your company URL. You will be amazed how many companies do not do this.5. Add Categories Include all the categories that are relevant to your business. Have a good search through the categories Google lists as there may be some you did not think of.6. Opening Hours Include your hours of business. No point someone trying to call you or pop by your store if you are closed. For those of you who go out to clients there is an option showing visitors you "service your customers at their locations". Another handy feature is you can hide your address. Remember to add in all the locations you service.7. Payment Methods Another great feature you can display the payment methods you accept. Use it because you want to have your profile completed.8. Additional Stuff There is a section allowing you to add additional information about your business. Perhaps you have just moved and Google has not yet updated their maps to show your new shop front. You offer something your competition doesn't and you want to tell your potential customers about it.9. Photos You can add up to 10 photos. People love looking at photo's, include a picture of your shop or office front, include pictures of yourself or your point of contact, include pictures of inside your office, making your potential customer feel familiar with you and your business.10. Customer Reviews Google allows people to write a review of your business on your places page. Ask your happy customers to visit your places page and give a review. It is also a great way to confirm different locations you may work in. Please note Google will pull reviews from other websites as well.We hope you find this post helpful. We will be doing a follow up with some more tips about Google places.The Essex SEO Team

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Further reading 6 Ways to Immediately Improve Your On Page SEO

6 Ways to Immediately Improve Your On Page SEO

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:39:00 GMT

6 Ways to Immediately Improve Your On Page SEO
Getting the foundations of your marketing plan for your website sorted out will help improve your chances of being seen in the search engines.With a few simple changes to your on page SEO you will have your foundations started and will see an improvement in your search engine position within days.Follow these simple tips:-1. Title tags and meta descriptionsTitle tags appear in the tab of your browsers when you have a page open, they also appear as the blue headline when your page is listed in the search engines results. Keep your description to 75 characters, describe the page and use your keyword. The closer your keyword is to the beginning of the sentence the more important it is to the search engines.The meta description of your page appears under the blue headline within the search engine results. Again use your keywords within this description, describe what is on the page keeping it to 150 characters.2. URLMessy URls with endless strings of numbers, letters and symbols should be avoided at all costs. If you are able to clean them up do so now, search engines look at your website's URL as part of their attempt to understand your content and index your page. Keep it simple, use your keywords within your URL indicating the topic of your page and help your page rank higher for it.3" target="_blank" itemprop="url" rel="external">www.essexseo.co.uk/seo_services3. Images Many companies place images into their websites to make it more appealing to their visitors. You can also make your images appealing to the search engines by providing information about the image. You can either use the file name or the alt tags. The alt tags enable you to tag each picture with a short piece of text. As the text for images is kept within the HTML code of your web page, the search engine bots can pick it up. Remember to use those keywords!4. Page Head LineWhen the search engine enters your page it needs to confirm the message in your titles, meta descriptions and URL match the on page content. The first thing it should read is your page head line. Make it attention grabbing and enticing to your human visitors. Your head line should reconfirm your page titles, meta description and keywords. This will help the search engines determine what your page is about and display it for your keyword within the search result. Using sub-headings and bolded text can also help.5. Header TagsAnother great way to tell the search engines which keywords are most important. Search engines know text within 'h1' tags are more important than text within 'h2' tags. There are 6 h tags, use them wisely.6. Internal LinkingWhen creating content for you pages include links using your keywords to point at other pages. It allows your human visitors to find more information within your website and also lets the search engines know what that page is going to be about if they follow that link.The Essex SEO Team
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Further reading 4 Steps to Increasing Shopping Trolley Conversions

4 Steps to Increasing Shopping Trolley Conversions

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:32:00 GMT
4 Steps to Increasing Shopping Trolley Conversions
The checkout process is where you have the most control over your customer. However, there are still pitfalls you need to avoid. Below are 4 steps you can take to increase your checkout conversions.1. Identify the pages that most often lead to conversion Most customers shopping on line make a purchase decision over a period of time. Customers are more likely to do some research about your company, compare product reviews, check out your postage terms and probably leave your website a number of times before they return to make a purchase, be that of their own accord or because you sent an email offer.
Use analytics and customer interviews to identify those pages that most often lead to a conversion.
Optimise those pages making them easier to find.
2. Reduce Clutter Try to get your shopping trolley process down to four steps. Remove distractions, and allow customers to add to their trolley without leaving the page. Include a progress bar so the customer can see where they are up to and how long until they complete their purchase. You really only need ask for essential information upfront, after your customer submits the purchase you can then ask for additional information.A number of larger organisations now allow for a new customer to purchase without registering, removing yet another hurdle for the customer. 3. Email Your Customers Who Abandoned Their Trolleys Customers abandon trolleys for various reasons; it is not always about you, your product or your competition. Be helpful and send an automated email letting the customer know something technical most have happened which stopped them making their purchase, and entice them back with an offer, a discount or free postage. 84% of business surveyed by eConsultancy reported an increase in conversions when using this technique.4. Reward Repeat Customers The majority of small businesses concentrate on getting new customers and never give a second thought to existing customers. 12% to 15% of customers stay loyal to a single retailer, creating 55% - 70% of your sales.You can reward your customers by making returns as simple as possible. Send specialised deals to customers as their loyalty grows. Invite feedback and respond either using Facebook, or Tweeter allowing other customer to see how you resolve issues.Have you employed any other techniques to improve your conversion rates when a customer abandons their trolley?The Essex SEO Team
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Further reading 4 SEO Steps to Follow When Re-Designing Your Website

4 SEO Steps to Follow When Re-Designing Your Website

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:39:00 GMT
4 SEO Steps to Follow When Re-Designing Your Website
It has come to that time when you think your website needs a revamp or a complete new design. You have spent hours planning the new site and how it is going to work and what you want your visitors to do when they land on your website. But have you taken into consideration links coming into old pages that you no longer wanted listed within your website, or perhaps you have decided to change the name of your URL because you get a better search result for that keyword?Here's a few steps to follow when changing your URL enabling you to keep a tidy URL structure, maintain a solid internal linking architecture and retain your link equity:-1. URL StructureIt is best practice to keep all the characters within your URL in lowercase and to separate words with a hyphen. A good example would be www.essexseo.co.uk/seo_services.php although many sites are now moving towards seo-services.php with the hyphen in the middle instead of at the bottom of the character. Check through your website and ensure you have the same structure throughout and not a combination of upper and lower case characters and different hyphens.2. 301 RedirectsYou will need to use a 301 redirect from your old URL to the new URL. This tells the search engines the URL has changed, helping to remove the old URL from the search engine listings and having it replaced with the new URL. Any external links pointing to the old URL will also pass their link juice through to the new URL.3. Internal LinkingYou also need to make sure all your internal links point to the new URL and not the old one. Internal links help the search engines and visitors move around your website. Internal links also help the search engines determine which pages are more important by the amount of links connecting to that URL.4. Older RedirectsIf its not the first time you have changed URL's you will need to check if there are 301 redirects from the original URL to the older URL, these will now need to be corrected and the original URL 301 redirected to the newest URL.Do you check for anything else when changing your URL? If so please let us know in the comments below.The Essex SEO Team
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Further reading 5_Link_Building_Mistakes_You_Could_Be_Making

5 Link Building Mistakes You Could Be Making

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:07:00 GMT
5 Link Building Mistakes You Could Be Making
There is no way around it, external linking is an essential part of an effective SEO strategy. It is also one of the most challenging aspects of search engine optimisation.Companies are still making basic mistakes where it comes to building inbound links. Listed below are the top five mistakes we have come across when companies approach us to take over their link building campaigns.1. Only using page rank to judge a site's authority:-Google keep warning companies not to use their PageRank, it is not updated on a regular basis and can be misleading. However, many companies still concentrate on this metric. Two other metrics that we find very helpful and would recommend you use are SEOmoz's mozRank and mozTrust. Over time you will develop a feel for website's authority, until then ask yourself these questions when you look at each website:-Does it feel trust worthy? Are readers commenting or retweeting the blogs?Lastly is the website relevant to your business? 2. Only using one keyword or keyword phrase in your links:- You need to create a natural link profile. If other people were linking to your website they would all be using different terms within their links. If you stick with only one keyword your link building efforts will not look natural to the search engines and it will take you longer to get ahead of your competitors within the search engine results.Keep details of the keyword / phrase you have used for each link to help you plan effectively.3. Aiming for Thousands of links:- Blindly building thousands upon thousands of links is a waste of time, money and resources. To be competitive you need to find out how many links your competition have and set a goal of at least 2-5 percent more links than they have.By setting goals you will free up time and be able to concentrate on other areas of your website and improve your on page search engine optimisation and inbound marketing tactics allowing your site to start making money.4. Only linking to your homepage:- By building links you are effectively building arteries into your website. These arteries allow some of the pages authority to flow to your page. If you only have external links coming into your home page that flow of page authority stops there, by putting internal links into your home page to other pages within your website some more of that page authority can flow to your other pages as well. It will always be better to get external links coming straight into specific pages, to utilise all your keywords, and to get the full share of the page authority to that one page instead of being diluted by flowing to your home page then onto a second page within your website.Try to attract links to pages throughout your website. Also ensure your internal link structure is in place helping those pages with less links gain some authority. 5. Analysing competitors back links that don't rank for your target keywords:- You may know who is considered the top in your industry and it is ok to look into their marketing activities with normal marketing, but link building and the search engines are a little different, just because a company is top in their industry doesn't mean they are appearing in the top of the search engine results for your chosen keywords. Search using your terms, then only analyse the linking activities of the sites that show up in the top five positions.External linking is constantly changing, but as long as you are building a well balanced external links structure you should be fine. Obtain links from different types of websites, blogs, directories, articles etc, use several keyword terms and your company name, and link into all your website pages.Often companies set unrealistic budgets for their link building efforts. You need to consider the charge for the time a link building consultant works on building links, the cost of legal links (adverts) within websites and the cost of article writing and submissions. If you require Link Building services please do not hesitate contacting us for a quote.
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The Essex SEO Team

3 Steps to Making Inbound Marketing Work for You

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:21:00 GMT
3 Steps to Making Inbound Marketing Work for You
Inbound marketing is all about getting the right customer to come to you. Traditional methods such as TV, radio, print etc are still used, but they interrupt the consumer, whereas inbound marketing is about being there when the consumer is looking for your product or service. This works because consumers are no longer passive recipients to your marketing messages. They are out there looking at products and services; investigating and researching before they make contact with you. The economy is also getting tougher so the consumer is really thinking hard before making their purchase.Inbound marketing allows the consumer to be in charge, by making sure you are visible, by having your content answering the consumer's questions and moving them through your website the way you need them to, you still retain some measure of control over converting them into a sale.Below are 3 components of inbound marketing. If you have not already implemented these, you should start now.SEOSearch engine optimisation needs to be incorporated into your website to ensure your site is search engine friendly, and appropriate keywords are being used per page. This helps the search engines place you in the correct search engine results and helps your rankings improve. You can also target long tail keywords, which will have less traffic but will be far more targeted and will have a better conversion rate. Search engine optimisation places you in front of your customers who are already out there looking for your product or service.Link building is also apart of search engine optimisation, its all about building links from other quality websites into your site. Each link is still considered a vote of confidence in your business and sends a signal to the search engines that you can be trusted. It also helps consumers find you in different places helping to drive more traffic to your business.If you have just designed a website and submitted it to the search engines without incorporating search engine optimisation you will be invisible to your audience.Social MediaSocial Media allows consumers to express their opinions about companies, products and services. This allows you to target your audience on a one to one basis, creating brand loyalty and brand advocates. Face Book likes and Followers within Twitter are people who are actually happy for you to talk to them, as soon as they like or follow you they are giving you permission to tell them about your business.There are two negatives to social media, the first is getting the balance right, do too little and your audience forgets about you, do too much and with one click of the mouse button you are unliked or unfollowed. The second negative is the time and dedication you have to put in. Determine a strategy that fits your business and your customers. Choose the right social media for your business. FaceBook tends to be business to customer, LinkedIn is Business to Business and Twitter is where you can actually pick the companies you want to target and start talking to them and driving them to your website as soon as they follow you. Social Media is the one area where you can not copy the competition as you need to find your own voice, your own goals and develop relationships with your customers.Content MarketingContent marketing includes website content, articles, whitepapers, infographics, videos, blog posts etc. Your content has to show off your industry expertise, building trust and becoming a valuable resource. The more relevant, problem solving and engaging the content the more benefit it will bring to your customer as well as to yourself.As an example a builder could help homeowners save money during this prolonged economic decline by producing a blog detailing which task's they could do themselves, and how they would go about doing the work and at which point they should call a builder in.You need to be producing a steady stream of content to keep visitors coming back to your website. The easiest way to start creating content is to answer the questions your customers often ask your sales team, or think about what you would want to know if you were not part of your industry and wished to use your services or product. The more questions answered before the customer makes contact the faster they will turn into a paying customer when they contact you or allow you to contact them.Your website should be considered the hub of your business marketing efforts. The more channels you employee to bring traffic to your website, the more landing pages you have selling your products or service the more likely you are to generate leads. The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

Why Great Content Alone Will Not Beat Your Competition

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:33:00 GMT
Why Great Content Alone Will Not Beat Your Competition
Content may be king, but without SEO it is not going to get you very far. Also without some marketing how do you plan to turn your visitors into leads.Using high quality content to gain traffic is a great idea, but all your competitors know this and will be doing the same, you need to do everything in your power to try and get a head of them.By building content alone thinking "they will come" is wrong.Why You Need To Consider SEOEvery website ranking in the top positions within the search engine results is doing the basics. They have created high quality content. They have more than likely done their keyword research and link building. They will probably have built up a social presence through FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They may have even tested landing pages to optimise their conversions.What does this mean to you? If you want to beat your competition, I'm afraid you have to do more than they are.We all know its better to be in position 1 in the search engine results than in position 2 or 3. Latest data from SEOmoz showed 1st position gets 18.2% of the clicks, 2nd position gets 10.05% and 3rd position 7.22%.Content needs SEO, SEO needs MarketingIf the only thing you are doing is creating content, you are going to fail, because your competitor is doing everything you are doing but more. You will never surpass your competitors if you do not implement SEO as well as content and social media along with marketing. Once you get that traffic to your website you then have to know how to turn them into a customer.SEO is not an easy task, and if you are not willing to do it all, someone who is will outrank you.If you have not got the time or energy to invest in your website, we can do it all for you, from designing you a professional looking website while implementing SEO, working on building links, creating content, and driving traffic to your landing pages where they will convert into leads.
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The Essex SEO TeamFour Simple Steps To Transform Your Website

Four Simple Steps to Transform Your Website

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:44:00 GMT
Four Simple Steps to Transform Your Website
If you have a website that gets found in the search engines, generates leads, and converts those leads into prospects and paying customers then you don't need to read any further.If you have a website sitting out there, doing little else than taking up space in the search engines you certainly need to keep reading and make your website into a valuable asset.When clients first come to me all they are interested in is being at the top of the search engines, they think this is the magic answer to increasing their sales. More traffic is fine if you know what to do with them once they come into your website. The purpose of your website should be to generate leads. You need to offer great content, and get search engine optimised. This will bring you the traffic that will then click through and provide their contact information so you can convert them from leads into paying customers. Should you Blog?Websites with blogs do better in the search engines, and they also generate more leads.Create useful, valuable, interesting content. If you do not have the time or ability you should outsource your content creation to someone who knows what they are doing.Great content will keep bringing people back to your website giving you more opportunities to turn them into a lead with different types of calls to action.Do you want a motorway of traffic coming into your website, or a country lane? Use social media to promote your content, as long as it is valuable to your reader produce podcasts, presentations, photos, ebooks and newsletters. This gives you lots of different avenues to transform those visitors into sales. You give away the above for free whilst the visitor gives you their details in return.Applying these four simple steps will transform your website:1. Your website is your key asset - Audit itDetermine which keywords, content and links are your most important assets. You can use Google Analytics to determine which keywords, content and links work best for your site.Remove any content that is performing badly, and ditch any keywords and links with low visitor numbers and high bounce rates. Hopefully you know which call to actions, or pages are converting leads, keep them ditch the rest. Identify your most valuable URLs and put redirects in place.2. Website DesignSearch engines see content not design, a clean crisp website with lots of content is better than one with lots of beautiful graphics, flash animation etc. Use a blog to create more content, and your website will be over 400 percent more likely to get indexed by search engines, 97 percent more likely to attract links, and will generate 55 percent more visitors than sites that don't maintain a blog.3. ConversionsMake your call to actions simple and clear, ask for limited information, and always make sure the call to action appears above the fold on-screen. Track your conversion rates, this is the only way to find out if your call to action is working, if you think it can do better try something different, be that colour, wording or the location of the call to action on your page.Don't take to long over testing different conversions, the quicker you get it right the quicker your sales will increase.4. You don't need to know every metricKeep to three or four metrics. The easier you make this for yourself the easier and quicker it will be to succeed and meet your goals.You should only transform your website to improve the results it delivers for you, be that visitor numbers, better leads, or higher conversion rates of those leads into paying customers.Don't change your website because it hasn't been done in a while. Focus on your goals and make them happen.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! The Secret To Writing Great Blog Posts

The Secret to Writing Great Blog Posts

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:43:00 GMT
The Secret to Writing Great Blog Posts
Writing great blog posts isn't easy and it takes time to get into your stride. It has taken me a good year to really start writing stuff I think my audience will be interested in. You can do it too if you follow these simple pointers:1. LengthBelieve it or not it really doesn't matter. There are great bloggers out there who do a couple of lines and get thousands of people spreading the word or others that write a page or two and have the same experience. As long as you get what you need to say across to your audience, it is of interest, and most importantly it offers a solution to a problem, length will not matter.2. CommentsComments are not going to keep you in business. Leads and sales will. Your blog should always be focused on driving traffic to your site which will in turn bring in leads or sales.Measuring the amount of comments you have in your blog will not increase your profit. Stop doing it now. 3. PerfectionPerfection will only block your creativity and stop you from getting anywhere. What actually counts is timeliness, set a date every week or month you will post a blog and stick to it. Your traffic will get use to expecting a blog post to appear on that day and will come back for more.Grammar is important as it will help convey your message more clearly, but don't beat yourself up over a few spelling mistakes. Just make sure your message is clear.The more you blog the better you will get, and the more you will understand your audience. What Does Matter:1. ActionableThe core reason people will click on your blog post is to solve a problem. People will share your blog if there is a clear actionable insight into solving their problem. Provide clear actionable steps in your blog posts to ensure your idea resonates with readers.2. Combined RelevanceComparing dissimilarities and depicting connections between them is a valuable way to combine relevance and generate more interest in your subject.3. UrgentThe best content is about what is happening now, always aim to supply your audience with fresh new material that they shouldn't have seen before.4. VisualYou don't have to make your blog look pretty with lots of pictures, videos or graphs. You can use section headers, numbers, bullets or text colour to break up the page and make it easier for your reader to understand your views or advice quickly.5. SolutionsDon't stuff your blog with your product. You created your product to solve a problem. Use your blog to educate your reader and run it parallel to your product offer; therefore, enhancing your product.6. EntertainingTry and be entertaining, ask your employee's to think up something fun you could post without deviating away from your goals of obtaining leads. Make it relevant to your business and make sure it will not hurt you in anyway.Although it was extremely entertaining to watch a top piano removal company drop a grand piano, destroying it. It really would not have helped the company's reputation.7. DefinitiveYou are the expert in your area; make sure that comes across in your blog. Be clear, direct and definitive.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! SEO just got a lot harder

SEO just got a lot harder for the SEO Consultant

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:43:00 GMT
SEO just got a lot harder for the SEO Consultant
While budgets are being cut, people are being made redundant, SEO's are now expected to cover more bases then ever before:-What companies now expect from their Search Engine Optimisation Consultant whether you are in house or a consultant are listed below:Site Accessibility:Create a site engines can easily crawl and indexKeyword Research / Targeting:Choosing the right keywords and employing them effectivelyContent Strategy:Set a plan of how to leverage the organisations resources to produce valuable, useful relevant, share-worthy materialContent Creation:Creation of blog posts, evergreen content, info graphics, interactive works, apps, tools etc.Link Building:Investigating, tracking and acquiring link opportunities.New Search Protocols:Search Vertical's:Images, local, video, news, blogs, social, mobile, products etc.Community Management:Creating and participating in conversations around your brand / sector in positive ways to drive awareness and adoption.Social Media PromotionEmploying Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Stumble Upon, Quora to improve your searchSocial Network ReachImproving the size, depth and breadth of your social networks to reach more potential customers and connectors.Reputation TrackingWatching your brands search results, social media remarks and web content to track success and monitor for dangerLocal / Maps OptimisationOptimising for placement to local search and portals, both web and social, plus monitoring local authorityIf you think there is anything else that should be added to this list let us know.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! Can I build links into my website by Guest Blogging

The Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google Adwords Advertising

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:37:00 GMT
The Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google Adwords Advertising
We thought this graph may be of interest to our readers.
C 2011 WordStream, Inc.
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Can I build links into my website by Guest Blogging?

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:59:00 GMT
Can I build links into my website by Guest Blogging?
Once upon a time guest blogging was a great way to get a link back to your website. You would still spend a great deal of time creating a quality blog post, but it would be worth it once you were rewarded with a high quality link back to your website.However, too many companies abuse this by creating low quality blog posts and submit their article across hundreds of blogs and call it guest blogging. It has completely devalued guest blogging.Beware of any company contacting you to guest blog for free. Nothing is for free.Why Guest Blogging is not an effective link building tool:Unless you are going to take the time to create a decent blog there is no point approaching companies or individuals of high standing, they will reject your blog straight away and will recognise you are just using them for a link.You'll probably be able to get published on a low quality blog but that link is not going to be worth anything.So why guest blog?You will only get value from a link within a guest blog if it is published at a high quality blog with real active readers because:
They will drive followers and promoters to your business.
This will result in links from people who will be talking about you, who are happy to link back to your blog post, and bookmarking your article at social media sites.
This can also lead to the readers placing you in a position of authority in your field of expertise, helping to build your brand awareness.
However, you have to create quality and provide value to the readers.But I only want a back link!If back linking is the only thing that matters, guest posting is the least effective of all other link building tactics. You'll spend so much time and money on one blog whereas in the same time you could have submitted to hundreds of directories or even purchased thousands of links.When thinking about your brand and growing your business only go for quality, give something back to the community that is worth reading.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! Top SEO Mistakes To Avoid

Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:40:00 GMT
Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid
Here are the most common mistakes I come up against when a small business owner has tried to implement SEO themselves with only the basic knowledge. Hopefully these pointers will help you.MistakeNot doing proper keyword researchWhy it's a mistakeYou think you know how people search, but you don't, you only know how you would search. Search terms are different for the different stages of the purchasing funnel. You need to ensure you are using keywords which will capture the searcher at all stages of their purchasing phases. Keyword research is the foundation of your search engine optimisation campaign and it can not be skipped.SolutionReview web stats, sit down with your colleagues and brainstorm, you need to ask customers how they found you in the search engines and what terms they used, you need to look at your competition. Keyword research should be the longest part of your research.MistakeDoing your own search engine optimisation and not making the time to implement it.Why it's a mistakeYou think you can handle it yourself, you don't want to outsource because you think it's too expensive. Yet you are running a business and have very little time to actually do the research, plan the website and SEO changes, let alone implement them. It could take you a year to finally get it all sorted while you keep checking your stats expecting to see the search engines sending you more traffic.SolutionBe honest, if you have the time you need to priorities the work as urgent and get on with it. It will probably only take you six weeks to implement the foundations of search engine optimisation. If you do not have the time, outsource, it may not be as expensive as you think and at least it will start bring in them sales.MistakeIgnoring social media because you don't like it or don't understand it or again you simply do not have the time.Why it's a mistakeSocial media is part of SEO and its here to stay. You ARE missing out if you are not participating.SolutionGet on with it! Set up a LinkedIn account, Face Book page and Twitter. At least sort out your profile and get active on Twitter. Drive that traffic to your website!MistakeNot having a planWhy it's a mistakeYou need to know what outcome you want from your website or social media campaign. Without goals you have nothing to measure to know if you are improving and getting sales.SolutionThink what outcome you want, come up with a daily plan to best achieve those goals. Use Face Book, articles and blogs and tweets to create momentum.MistakeObsessing over ranking reports and not paying attention to traffic statsWhy it's a mistakeSEO is a way to get the correct traffic to your website. Look at your traffic and learn from it. You may find you are getting traffic from search terms you hadn't even though of instead of obsessing about being at the top for one particular phrase.SolutionLook at your ranking reports every now and again if you need that buzz. But pay attention to your traffic stats to see what is really going on. You can use Webmaster Tools to get at the information to find out what is going on and how you can improve.MistakeFocussing on the search engines and not the visitorsWhy it's a mistakeMost small businesses think as soon as their site is ranking well they will be flooded with sales. It doesn't work that way. If you haven't put in place measures to convert those visitors once they land on your website you are wasting your time and money. Never optimise your website at the expense of your visitors.SolutionStep back and ask yourself, "Is it good for the search engines" if not make some tweaks, then ask yourself "Is it good for the visitors" in not don't do it. Think customer first, search engine second.MistakeFocusing only on link building or only on contentWhy it's a mistakeSEO is made up of many factors. Off page, on page, site structure, linking etc. By ignoring one factor you will limit your results.SolutionPlan your strategy and make sure you do all the right things at the right time.MistakeNot growing your contentWhy it's a mistakeThe search engines and your visitors are always on the look out for fresh content. It also gives them a reason to return. By not updating your content your site becomes dated and you lose the opportunity to increase rankings and further engage site visitors.SolutionAdd a blog to your website and add helpful and informative content regularly.MistakeKeyword stuffing, spamming, setting up or participating in link farmsWhy it's a mistakeThe search engines really don't like you doing this and they will penalise or ban your website when you get caught. It's really not that helpful to your site visitors either.SolutionEducate yourself about SEO and what is acceptable and not acceptable to the search engines. There are some great SEO's out there, find them and follow them.Do you think we have missed anything? Please let us know.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! 12 Tips to Optimising the Customer Experience

12 Tips to Optimising the Customer Experience

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:52:00 GMT
12 Tips to Optimising the Customer Experience
1. Measuring success or failureMeasuring the success or failure of your on line business is considered a new science in itself. One most small business owners are unaware they should be doing. Optimising your web pages for the customer experience could be the one factor that determines your website seeing a 3% conversion rate compared to a rate of 16%.2. Which Conversion Rates You Should Be MeasuringHouse of Kaizen found that nearly 40% of marketing directors and MDs responsible for online businesses measured success by the number of visitors who arrived on the website, while only 30% looked into conversion rates, and only 9% measured and tackled 'bounce rate'. If you consider the average bounce rate is 50%, that's half your marketing budget going down the drain.3. Know where your visitors come fromYou should always be aware of how many of your unique visitors are converting into sales, you should also know where they came from, be that a search engine result, Twitter, Facebook or other referrer. You should also know which pages within your website are not working, usually highlighted with a high bounce rate and come up with a solution to the problem.4. Make your website relevant to your customers needsUnfortunately, many companies make their website relevant to what they think their customer wants and not what the customer actually needs. The best way to find out what works is to incorporate A/B testing. This is where you have two pages selling the same product but the pages look different, you should then be able to determine which page converts the highest amount of customers. You can do this several times until you know you have the highest possible converting page.5. Do you actually need all that content?There is a push towards creating more and more content for your website, but is it what your customer wants. The more content the slower the website will load. An increase in page response time from 2 to 10 seconds increases page abandonment rates by 38%. If your blog alone creates lots of traffic and these visitors convert to customers through your blog then that's great, but if they are not converting you are either doing something wrong, or you are wasting a lot of money and time creating the content. If you have added call to actions into your blog and visitors are not converting, instead focus on Twitter and Facebook.6. Mobile WebsitesMobile websites are now becoming more popular creating a massive challenge in performance and usability. If you have not yet got a mobile website, visitors to your site using mobiles will see your current content, which will be hard to navigate interrupting your customers purchase journey. 7. Conversion Rate ExpectationsHighly successful websites achieve around 14% conversion rates, while thousands of others are stuck around the 2% mark.Success is coming from engagement enhancing features, but only when the overall site is executed extremely well and constantly tested for customer relevancy, reliability and ease of use.8. Video and How It Can Improve Sales and Reduce ReturnsUsing video to sell your products is also taking off. M&S reported viewers watch three times as many products on their website and spend 30% more on average compared to those that don't. Also the returns rate is 30% lower when customers have purchased after watching the footage. To ensure your website load time is quick, you can now detect customer bandwidth to enable smaller files are sent to them. Also you can run your videos from another location such as Adjust Your Set.9. The Customers Purchase JourneyTake the purchase journey your customer has to navigate through, from first arriving on your website through to paying. Remove anything cluttering or distracting your visitor from purchasing.10. Social MediaMore companies are signing up to social media to drive traffic to their websites. So far it is proving a great resource for companies to chat to their customers and to react quickly to any problems. As for creating new business it is still in the early stages. To get the best from social media, make sure links from your social media platform to your sales pages work. Also make sure pages load quickly otherwise you will lose the customer and they are less likely to forward your link onto any of their social community. Always deliver the traffic to the offer not to your home page.11. Customer Services on your WebsiteVideo chat makes customers eight times more likely to buy, and 97% give it a five star rating. This is new for customer service, but at least when a customer gets stuck in the purchase process, instead of them abandoning their cart. Instead they can click on assistance and a customer service person pops up on screen and can talk them through their difficulties with the website. Making the customer happy because they managed to purchase what they wanted and making you happy because you got a sale that would not have happened.12. Which part of the marketing funnel is the most important?Each stage should be considered as important as the next. Focus on the middle of the marketing funnel as much as you do for the beginning (driving traffic to your website) and the end (the sale).The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! 10 Quick Fixes to Building Landing Pages That Work

10 Quick Fixes to Building Landing Pages That Work

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:02:00 GMT
10 Quick Fixes to Building Landing Pages That Work
Your landing page is the most important part of your online marketing efforts. You already know if your landing pages are not working well enough because all that traffic you are working so hard at getting to your website isn't filling in your contact form, or purchasing your product or service.Let's say your website is attracting 300 visitors a month with landing pages converting at 3%. That's 9 leads. You can continue to spend money, time and effort increasing your visitor numbers or you can take a few minutes to improve your landing pages and double your leads. A great website with great landing pages can expect a 16% conversion.1. Use a valuable offer to entice visitors to fill out a form.The only people loving "contact us" now-a-days are Spammers and most people can't see the point in sales brochures. Besides all that information should be on your website. Offering an incentive works wonders. You want me to give you my details but what do I get out of it? Offer a free half hour consultation or a free basic How To eBook.2. Use your headline to lay out your offer.I want to know why I'm giving up my information to you. Make it clear to your visitor.3. Have a bullet pointed list with several benefits they'll get from filing out your form.This allows you to tell the visitor more about your offer, but keep it short and sweet. Build urgency and emphasize why your visitor needs your offer.4. Use an image to reinforce the benefits of your offer.A picture can tell an entire story, especially to those visitors who don't stick around to read your bullet points. Visuals encourage visitors to stay a bit longer.5. Keep your landing page shortThink of the bare minimum you need from your visitor, like their name and email. Once you have this at least you can contact them for a chat.Just by asking for a telephone number or address can turn people off filling in your form.6. Keep above the foldYour visitor should be able to see everything on one page without having to scroll down. Making it very clear what they need to do to receive your offer.7. Tell the visitor what to doAnother opportunity nearly always wasted on call to action buttons having "submit" or "send" on them. Use your call to actions correctly and tell your visitor what to do "sign-up", "register" or "download". That way they know what is expected of them.8. Hide your site's navigation.Ok I haven't come across many website owners or website designers who agree with this one. But you shouldn't have any navigation on your landing page taking the visitor's attention away from the action you want them to perform.When a visitor is coming into your landing page they are at the stage where they want your product or service, they no longer need to look around your website, so keep them focused on "registering" and remove all navigation likely to distract or take your visitor away from what you want them to do.9. Use a Thank You page after the visitor has submitted the form.It's polite to thank someone when they give you something, so remember to thank your visitor for submitting their details. They also know they have completed their enquiry.It's also another opportunity to tell the visitor about your other products or services.You could also include social media buttons to allow the visitor to share your offer with their friends and followers.10. Always test your landing pages, then test some more.Experiment with new landing pages by building two identical ones and switching a feature, like a shorter form, a different image, or a different colour page. If one converts better then the other you know which one to use in future. You can then move on and test something else.The more landing pages you have the more conversions you have.Here is an example of our landing page for an SEO report for £399.00.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now! How to use search engines and socil medai marketing

How to use Search Engine and Social Media Marketing

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:52:00 GMT
How to use Search Engine and Social Media Marketing
As technology gets better the more we are able to avoid advertising. We record programs and skip the adverts; we can now place spam filters into our email accounts and never see the adverts being sent to us.Inbound marketing is far more important than ever, in the long run it is cheaper to implement but it does take longer to see a return. Once you start to see that return it is usually far greater than outbound marketing such as advertising, which only works while you are paying for that advert whereas inbound is always working for you.As an example once you have implemented search engine optimisation and your website has made it to the top of the search engine results, you only have to check on your competition every now and then. Once you have the optimum landing page you can leave it and move on to something else. Inbound marketing is all about building the foundations to make it easy for people searching for your product or service to find you.This is achieved by using search engine optimisation, link building and social media.1. Include social sharing buttons on your websiteOnce you have placed great content on your website the easiest way to get it seen is to then place social sharing buttons on your website such as Facebooks like button and Tweeters tweet button. This makes it easy for your visitors to share your content with their followers.This can lead to more followers or fans of your content, products or services.Social media activity is now as important as links were to Google search results. It shows your business is current and active.2. Use your keywords in tweetsYou know by placing keywords within your website, that best describe your business, will result in a better position within Google and bring you better traffic. Your keywords tell Google and people what you are selling before they even come into your website. The same is true of your Tweets. You can make it easier for people in Twitter to find you by using your keywords within your Tweets. Do not over do it but think about how you can slip them into the 140 characters.3. Include your URL in your social profilesI always recommend people include their URL within their profile. Simply because when I am looking at companies within Twitter the first thing I do is go to their website to find out if they are based in the UK, local or someone I actually want to buy from. By placing your URL within your profile you are making it so much easier for your customer to come to your website and buy your product or service.Make sure the customer is also coming through to a well presented website, badly designed or poor navigation is a major put off for people buying from you.4. Include your URL in video and presentation contentSocial media sites such as YouTube are powerful tools for building links into your website. You have seen how some videos go viral. If you also create a video that is received well within the YouTube community, they will share your content with their followers and friends within Facebook and Twitter.Do not forget to place your URL where it can be seen, otherwise you are going to miss out on all that traffic visiting your website.5. Optimise social profileYour profiles are an extension of your website. Remember to search engine optimise them.6. Social media reach is now as important as link buildingYou know how important it is to have links coming into your website from around the internet. This helps Google to know what your website is about. It also helps people know what you are offering before they click on that link into your website.Social media reach is now becoming just as important. It is telling the search engines and people you are current and an active organisation within the internet.It also makes it easier for your customers to contact you, and for you to deal with any problems they may have or to simply hear how wonder you are.7. Build new relationshipsIt is much the same way you would make friends in the real world, start chatting, find common ground then meet in the real world if possible.Would you add any other tips to this list?The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

Your Search Engine Optimisation SEO Questions Answered

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:38:00 GMT
Your Search Engine Optimisation SEO Questions Answered
Please feel free to leave a question in the comments section below and we will attempt to answer you.The Essex SEO Team

How Do I get A Head of my Competition in Google?

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:43:00 GMT
How Do I get A Head of my Competition in Google?
Your competition consistently show up at the top of the search engine results because they are employing search engine optimisation tactics. But, you do not have a large enough budget to hire an SEO Consultant or get advise about your website.Being a small company as well, DR Adept know how difficult it can be to get past the competition because you either do not have the budget or the technical skills.That's why they have come up with a cheaper alternative and will produce a report for you for £399, detailing problems with your website and solutions, what your competition is doing, the best keywords for your website and will write the title and page descriptions to help you on your way.£399 is an excellent price to pay to start seeing better leads coming into your website and to start getting ahead of the competition.Order your SEO Report today and start climbing the search engines within weeks.

Optimising one keyword at a time

Mon, 16 May 2011 14:14:00 GMT
Optimising one keyword at a time
You've stuffed your page with every keyword known in your industry and are still not ranking highly within the search engines and can't understand why.Over stuffing your page with multiple keywords is not the answer; I have always found targeting one keyword per page works far better than targeting two or three keywords. Although many pages can be devoted to one keyword it does not work vice-versa.Follow these simple instructions to see a result:
Everyone should know by now the more content the better. You should be targeting at least 400 to 800 words per page. Remember you may not be able to exhaust your SEO efforts on the page but you can exhaust your user. Divide your text up with headings of a different colour from the main text, use pictures and say something worth while.
Only write about the keyword you are targeting, don't go off and talk about something else.
Make sure your keyword is the most popular term on the page, but don't over do it, use it as much as possible without making the page confusing.
Include the keyword at the beginning of your title tag, the page description and heading 1. Then link to it from other pages on your website using relevant keywords within the link.
Get other sites to link to this page with your keyword within the link. Repeat this monthly or as many times as needed.
As long as your competitors have not read this article you should start seeing results in the next 2 to three weeks.How to create landing pages:Lets us know how you get on.The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

Googles Panda update comes to the UK

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:18:00 GMT
Googles Panda update comes to the UK
Reports started to come out this week the new Panda update has been launched in the UK, although America have had it since late January.American businesses did report a 40% to 60% drop in traffic but all seems quite in the UK so far.The Panda update is aimed at content farms, where poorly written articles are produced to create links and also to deal with duplicated content.As long as you have not purchased links from content farms, have not copied text from others websites and are creating unique content for your own website you should see no negative affects.We are pleased to report we actually moved up by three positions for our chosen keyword the day Panda was launched, the companies that had finally got a head of us in the search engines did seem to come out of no where. I'm sure these companies will work really hard getting back to the top.We are also pleased to report all of our clients sites have not been affected, although we are testing location pages on one client which seems to have worked really well for their positioning in several places, but location pages do dip into the duplicate content issue, only solution to this is writing unique content for each page.So as long as you have unique high quality content you should have nothing to worry about. Oh yes and you haven't purchased links from content farms.Have you noticed a dip in traffic or your position within Google within the last week?The Essex SEO TeamUpdate 21st April 2011 Our competition is certainly working hard, they are back up in the search engines and are dominating nearly every position for keyword Essex SEO. Well done guys.

Googles Newest Algorithm Change

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:19:00 GMT
Googles Newest Algorithm Change
As of 26th January 2010 at around 3:30pm, SEOs within a WebmasterWorld thread begain reporting a 40% - 60% drop in traffic from Google.Is the new Content Farm Algorithm Live? These reports all come from webmasters who have had stable rankings and traffic in Google for years.There is speculation, and I certainly hope so, that Google's new content spam detection and prevention algorithm has kicked in. We have personally witnessed a number of our competition who came out of nowhere, are finally dropping down the search engine rankings.A senior member at WebmasterWorld said:"Something really BIG changed yesterday about midday. We are still in triage mode here covering our basics. We saw a huge 10-20% drop in almost all positions for our biggest and oldest site."Another person said "everything was doing great and then January 26th came at exactly 3:30pm, It's as if the switch was turned off again". And another webmaster said the same thing, "We have lost 40-60% traffic in several sites, all same time yesterday. Very frustrating and to see server idle now."All of these webmasters and SEO's claim to have unique and useful content on their websites. However we have not seen this change effect any of our websites, or our clients websites.As with any Google change, there are always examples of collateral damage.Have you noticed any changes? Why not let us know below in our comments form.The Essex SEO TeamUpdate on Googles Panda Algorithm

Why Wont Google Use My META Description

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:05:00 GMT
Why Wont Google Use My META Description
I've been pretty frustrated of late when I see Google taking information from within my website, or from the Open Directory Project and placing that information within my meta description.Part of me thinks I should not worry because when I search for products or services I only look at the title tag then for the product within the short description under the title, I don't read the entire text. Yet I've taken the time to write sales pitches for each meta description and my ego would prefer they were shown. So is there anything that can be done about Google tossing aside my meta descriptions and choosing what they want in them.Meta Description BasicsAs already mentioned above the meta descriptions are taken from 3 places:
META description
On-page copy
Open Directory Project (ODP)
What Google algorithm tends to do is pull up content it thinks is relevant and displays that within the search engine results.Controlling meta descriptionsUnfortunately there isn't much you can do about controlling Googles algorithm to force them to accept the meta description only. But there are a few things you can do to help guide Google in the right direction.The actual meta descriptionMake sure your keyword phrase is within the meta description, if Google can find the matching copy in your description they are more than likely to use this tag. Be warned, don't just list your keywords within the meta description, write something that makes sense and build your keyword into the sentence in a natural way.Lots of websites out there have the same old information in every meta description for every page on their website. Please do not do this, go through each meta description you have and make sure it is unique to that page.Blocking your Open Directory Project ListingOn occasions Google will pull up the information you placed in your Open Directory Project listing for your home page. Thankfully you can block Google from using this listing with the following META tag:
Thankfully this little problem is not as bad as it use to be.Block Your Meta DescriptionFollowing this advice with CAUTION as your meta description will disappear entirely and can effect caching. I would only use it if the copy Google are displaying could hurt your brand or cause a legal problem. Blocking your meta description with this tag:
Do nothingIts hard, but something I've learnt, don't do anyting. Google's attempts to match copy to the search queries may not always work the way you'd like, but in general they're a good thing. Matching, bolded keywords drive click-throughs, and people rarely read the whole text of a snippet. If it's just a couple of long-tail queries, don't worry about it.If you found this article useful please let me know. If you have anything else to add to this please use the comment form below.The Essex SEO Team

Creating A Call To Action Button

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:10:00 GMT
Creating A Call To Action Button
We thought we would introduce you to our new Call To Action button creating tool.Call to Action buttons tell your visitor what you want them to do. They visually draw your visitor's eyes to the button so they can't miss it.As an example on the right hand side of this page you can see our green "sign up" call to action button.The best place to use them are on landing pages, where there is no navigation away from that page, ensuring the visitor is lead to where you want them to go.Here is an example of a landing page:-Download FREE SEO GuideThe call to action button is at the bottom of the page after we have told the visitor the benefit of using our downlaod.The visitor knows to click on the button, and once they do this they are lead to the page where you want to collect their information or sell your product.We thought we would make life a bit simpler for those of you starting out and have provided you with the code for creating a Call To Action Button.Visit our Call to Action tool, enter in a few details about colour, type and the message you want on the button and the tool will create the button, enabling you to see it before you copy the code into your website.Have you found this tool helpful?The EssexSEO Team

Creating Landing Pages

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:20:00 GMT
Creating Landing Pages
1. Remove Navigation and Other DistractionsKeep your visitors focussed on your offer by removing distractions like navigation or other promotions.2. Headings should be used to explain the value of your offerYou have to quickly catch visitors attention these days. You need to make your offer as clear as possible making sure your title contains:
A clear action (i.e. Download)
A clear description of your offer (i.e. Download our SEO Guide
An explanation of the value of your offer (i.e. Download our SEO guide to gain qualified leads)
3. Use images and caption textImages work really well they engage the visitor and make your offer more tangible. People are far more likely to read the caption text on an image then to read the body text, start adding caption text to your images.4. Create thank you pages Hopefully your visitor completes the action you wanted, so thank them with a thank you page. You can use this page to suggest another action you want them to do. Like Subscribing to your Newsletter, Blog or suggesting your website to their friends.5. Make Your Call To Action Button EngagingUse an action word within your button "start your free trial now" instead of boring "submit". Not only is it more interesting it also tells the visitor what they are getting.
The Essex SEO TeamDownload Free SEO eBook now!

Where is SEO going in 2011

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:34:00 GMT
Where is SEO going in 2011
2010 seemed to move heavily towards behaviour based and local search results.We noticed clients budgets getting smaller and having to work harder at what we do to prove ourselves. We also found SEO training harder to come by and less advice in blogs or newsletters. SEO conferences are costly and always held at a great distance taking training cost out of reach of freelancers or small agencies.In 2011 we think SEO will continue to change specifically in the areas of local search and popularity.We have noticed a greater demand from our clients to be seen locally, not only locally to their business address but nationally as their customers are not just based around their premises. SEO consultants are going to work hard at figuring out the localisation algorithms and the top firms will probably develop advanced tools to help out others, but at what cost? Local placement will grow as a key SEO focus as it consumes more and more of the search results landscape.As spamming grows and companies and SEO consultants purchase links we believe Likes as in Facebooks Likes will start to replace links. Links now seem worthless as more companies are purchasing them and SEO consultant are being open about purchased links working. Over recent months when we research back links to our clients competitors websites and our own competitors, we are amazed at how many links are being purchased without any ill effects on their websites. We have even noticed SEO companies who say they do not purchase links and do not advocate purchasing links, who have more purchased links then links earnt from trust and respect.We think by the end of this year Google will have worked out a way to spot spam and low-quality link bombardment. Hopefully with an algorithm change implemented within the search engines.Social media optimisation is evolving, the issues in 2011 will be how to use it and what it will contribute to your business. Brand awareness and reputation is important in this field.Pay per click (PPC) is likely to become more expensive, the average account user will either not advertise as much or not be able to afford PPC, thus pushing up the price some more.If you have any other predictions we would be happy to hear from you.The EssexSEO TeamThe right way to use social media platforms to market and brand yourself

Here is the right way to use social media platforms to market and brand yourself

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:52:00 GMT
Here is the right way to use social media platforms to market and brand yourself
We found this blog and thought it would be of interest to our followers, if you wish to read the full original version written by Cori Padgett please follow this link :using social media correctlyHere is some of the blog:
Be a person... as in a real one with real thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Let people connect with you and get to know you not some autobot you set up because you were looking for an easy buck.
Make relationships your goal not sales. Because the big, hairy bulk of people who will ever buy from you... will be people that know you, like you, and trust what you have to say. In other words, to them you're NOT a fly by night spammer.
Make it your goal to provide value in everything you do. Even when you think folks may not see it. You'd be surprised just how many DO see it and take note, and come back later to get to know you better. And even send you a nice email or two. (That's the fun part btw!)
Do more listening, less broadcasting. No one likes a bragger. No one likes that guy at the party that's so full of himself he's talked of nothing BUT himself for the last 3 hours. Can we say "Total Bore"? Take the time to listen to your readers, your prospects, your friends and followers. Listen and do your best to help them in some way. Everyone's got problems and people always remember the guy who helped them solve it for no other reason than to be helpful.
Participate with your community. No that doesn't mean you have to be crazy active on the social media scene. But do set up some sort of schedule of time that you devote to your social communities to interact, communicate, and relate. Make it part of your weekly to-do list and a little genuine interaction can really go a long way.
And finally... remember to give without expectations. Often times people get discouraged in social media because they feel like they do all the right things, but no one reciprocates. But if you're patient you'll find that your blessings to others send blessings your own way when you least expect it.
Do those six things and I have no doubt you'll see a marked increase in your success with social media... both for your business, marketing and branding purposes as well as marked increase in your own personal satisfaction. You'll be building relationships that will often stand the test of time and bless your life tenfold in more ways than you likely ever expected.And THAT is how social media is meant to be used. At least in my (mostly) humble opinion.The EssexSEO www.EssexSEO.co.uk/Blog We would add being honest and true to yourself to this list.Heat Map Analysis

Heat Map Analysis

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:01:00 GMT
Heat Map Analysis
Hubspot recently did a great blog on Heat Map Analysis. Heat Map Analysis is where marketing companies have used eye tracking software to test websites. Hubspot have included pictures of the eye tracking results called Heat Maps.We thought our readers and clients would find their blog interesting and would benefit you in understanding how a person views the search engines and your website.blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1499/3-Hot-Marketing-Tips-from-Heat-Map-Analysis-images.aspx>

I need someone to check my SEO work

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:11:00 GMT
I need someone to check my SEO work
I often get calls from website owners who have read a bit about SEO and incorporated their new knowledge into their websites. They usually pretend they are going to need my services but could I give them a few pointers and try out their forms, or they are honest and tell me they did the work themselves, ask me to give them some advice; for free of course. I loved giving free advice until it started to take up too much of my valuable time, which should be spent on my paying customers, who never ask for free things from me.The people who want free, would not be happy with the advice I give them, as it would have to be quick and I would only look at the obvious. I'm hardly going to use the services I pay for to learn more about their websites for them. One company who were being very evasive, (I actually think they were my competitor doing some research on me), laughed when I had finally had enough of the wasted call and advised him to purchase The Art of SEO.So what is involved with auditing your website, to then tell you where its going wrong, and why I charge what I do. As I have a proven track record of increasing my clients revenue, I think I'm justified in charging my fees. What is involved in a website audit?Audit Guide:
Load analytics
Is the site Content Managed
Website Measurements
How competitive is the market space
Is the content unique and of high quality
Who are the target audience?
What message are you trying to send?
Is the media interested in the message/product/service?
Branding - promoting articles
Competition
Who are the competition
What is the competition doing
Using a unique, highly converting set of keywords?
Using a targeted, high value link?
Saturating a market segment, justifying your focus elsewhere?
Weaknesses appearing in competitors strategy; giving opportunities for exploitation.
Identifying Business, Search and Paid competition
Are their websites fully indexed by the Search Engines?
Are their product/category pages keyword rich and unique?
Do their product/category pages have high PageRank scores?
Is navigation keyword rich?
Are they over optimised and being penalized?
Are they spamming using doorway pages?
What keywords are they targeting?
Who is linking to their home page?
Type of server?
Does the search engine see the same result as the searcher?
How much traffic are they getting?
Look at their SEO in past years
Performing a technical SEO audit of a siteThe SEO Audit & Keyword Research
What type of traffic and conversions are you getting?
What are you ranking for in Google, Yahoo and Bing?
Page load times?
No of Inbound link
Test a search on your brand words
Check Google cache to ensure up to date website is shown
Accessibility / spiderability
Are you appearing for your keywords
Interpretation of analytics data
Analyze site content and tags
Robots.txt verification tool to check robots.txt file & also verify your sitemap
Is the URL structure clean and optimised?
Are there session ID's or user ID's in the URL?
Is there any unwanted junk in the URL?
Any links or content in JavaScript, Java or Flash?
Is any content hidden behind forms or pull down menus?
Are the correct redirects being used if needed?
What is the navigation and internal link structure look like? Search engine friendly? Optimised?
Any Un-indexed pages?
How does the page look to the search engines?
Any duplicate content and Canonical issues?
Any server or hosting issues - time outs, slow load time, shared IP, bandwidth and transfer limits, server location
What areas of the site are creating walls or speed bumps for the search engines?
What areas of the site are creating walls or speed bumps for the potential customer?
How well is the site structured from a usability standpoint
Traffic spikes, plumments?
Work out seo changes benefiting the company
Report findings to client giving clear instructions on how to make changes.The list above is just that, a list of things to look at which lead to much more indepth research.If you have any questions you would like answered in this blog, please comment below.The EssexSEO Team.Basildon SEO

What is Search Engine Optimisation

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:10:00 GMT
What is Search Engine Optimisation
Put simply search engine optimisation referred to as SEO, brings better quality traffic to your website.Search Engine Optimisation should form part of your marketing plan.An SEO consultant will investigate your website and your competitors website to see how you are both doing in the search engines.They will then advise you about the work required to bring in better traffic and to convert that traffic into customers. They will also advise you what needs to be done to beat your competition within the search engines.If you need a Search Engine Optimisation Company to undertake this service for you please do not hesitate contacting us.
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The EssexSEO Team

Test Your SEOs Consultants Knowledge

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:40:00 GMT
Test Your SEOs Consultants Knowledge
Once a year SEOmoz do a blog testing SEO's to see how good they really are. We thought their questions and answers would be of interest to you and have listed them below:www.seomoz.org/tools have lots of great information and services if you wish to check them out.Which is more likely to have a positive impact on a page's search engine rankings and why - 10 links from 1 website or 1 link each from 10 different websites?All other things being equal, there appears to be a very strong correlation between higher rankings and a diversity of linking domains. Hence, earning 10 links from 10 unique sites should provide greater benefit. My opinion is that Google rewards this type of linking because diversity indicates both broad popularity/importance and greater editorial citation vs. a single site (possibly one which has a relationship with the linked site). The larger quantity of linking domains is also a far greater barrier for marketers and businesses to earn vs. the single site's links.Explain the difference between the following items and how the search engines treat them, 301 response code, 302 response code, canonical URL tag and meta refresh.A 301 redirect tells browsers and search engines that a page has been permanently redirected to a new URL. A 302 redirect indicates a temporary redirection that will change again or revert back in the future. Search engines such as Google and Bing interpret a 301 redirect by passing the link equity and ranking metrics from the 301'd URL to the target page. 302 redirects do not always receive this treatment (though exceptions exist) and may show in the search results with the original URL/snippet even after the 302 redirect is in place.The Canonical URL tag is a < link rel> item in the header of a document that serves as a suggestion to search engines, indicating the "original" or "canonical" version of that page's content. It is intended to tell engines which URL is suitable for indexing when multiple pages contain the same or very similar content.The meta refresh is a directive in the header of a document indicating that, after a certain quantity of time is passed, the browser should redirect to a new location (or reload the page). Search engines appear to treat most short meta refreshes (a few seconds in length) as permanent redirects, passing the link equity and ranking metrics to the target page (they also claim to do this 100% of the time for meta refreshes marked with "0" seconds of delay). Longer meta refreshes may be indexed as normal.How can the meta robots tag impact how search engines crawl, index and display content on a web page?The meta robots tag can be used to specify whether a page is included in a search engine's public index (for display in results), whether links on the page are followed vs. nofollowed and the display of the snippet (removing the description and/or excluding titles/descriptions from the Open Directory Project or Yahoo! Directory for example). The tag can also be used to prevent a cached version of the page being available via the search results.Who are the top 2 search engines (as ranked by share of queries) in the following countries - the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and China?In the United States, it's either Google & Bing or Google & YOUTube (though the latter is technically owned by Google and thus, could be considered a single entity. It's also true that YOUTube is a specialized site exclusively for video content, and thus may not "count" - this argument is often made in comparison to Twitter searches, many of which come through APIs). The UK matches the US on this front. In China, #1 is Baidu and Google is #2. In Russia, Yandex is #1 and Google is #2 (BTW, Yandex's English language results are pretty darn good, and have that nice, early Google minimalist feel to them).Name at least 3 elements critical to ranking well in Google Local/Maps/Places search.Any of the following would be reasonable answers - registration/verification with Google Local/Places; listing presence & consistency in Google Places sources; ratings and reviews from Google Places users; proximity to centroid and match on local phone number/address; listing prominence in Google Places sources (e.g. Yelp, Citysearch, Urbanspoon, Dexknows, etc.), listings/references from sources that feature in "more about this place" (typically from local coverage websites); business listing title/name/domain name.What aspects of social media marketing have a positive impact on search engine rankings (apart from the value of direct links from the social sites)?Social media is a form of awareness marketing and branding, which can bring a wide variety of search engine ranking benefits. The most obvious and direct is the potential for creation of links and references to the sites/pages that garner traffic and attention through social media. Another powerful influence is the use of social results directly in SERPs as seen by Google & Bing's integrations with Twitter (and Bing's integration with Facebook). Google also has connections, often via Gmail and other services to "results from my social circle" which can bring results to page 1 that otherwise wouldn't appear). There's also indications that tweets, in particular, may be directly influencing rankings and being treated as links, particularly for queries that call the QDF algorithm. Finally, brand associations and mentions may be mined by the engines from social sources and used in brand entities or co-citation algorithms to help a site/page be seen as more relevant or related to particular keywords and more "important" or "popular."List 5 tags/locations on a page where employing a target keyword can have a positive effect on search engine rankings.Any of the following would be reasonable answers: Title element, domain name, subdomain, URL string, body element, alt attribute, bold/strong tag.Describe the distribution of search query demand and what is meant by the "fat head" and "long tail."Billions of searches are performed each week, but the vast majority of these (~70%) are query terms/phrases that are searched for less than 10 times per month. This distribution of demand is represented by a chart with a trailing line called the "long tail" (as coined by Chris Andersen of Wired). The head of this curve, where the queries are searched thousands-millions of times each month (very popular terms) is called the "fat head."So next time you're having a meeting with your SEO practitioner ensure they can answer these questions.EssexSEO Team
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FREE SEO Ebook

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:37:00 GMT
FREE SEO Ebook
We have been working with our clients since 1998 improving their websites and implementing search engine optimisation changes.This has benefited our clients by increasing the number of enquiries they get through their websites, from phone calls to form submissions.Also by making a few simple changes our clients have also seen great improvements with their online sales.Our Free SEO Guide will give you some great information and advice to enable you to start improving your website today. Download your Free SEO Guide now.If you would like us to carry a full seo campaign on your website click on the bottom below and we will take a look at your website and give you an idea of costs.
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Essex SEO Blog

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Your Search Engine Optimisation SEO Questions Answered

How Do I get A Head of my Competition in Google?

Optimising one keyword at a time

Googles Panda update comes to the UK

Googles Newest Algorithm Change

Why Wont Google Use My META Description

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Creating Landing Pages

Where is SEO going in 2011

Here is the right way to use social media platforms to market and brand yourself

Heat Map Analysis

I need someone to check my SEO work

What is Search Engine Optimisation

Test Your SEOs Consultants Knowledge

FREE SEO Ebook