Here’s something I just found out yesterday that you might find interesting if you’re interested in getting the best from your web site.

If Google doesn’t think your page title properly represents your page content they can change the title on the fly as they present your site in their search results page. Yes really!

The page title is the most important item on any web page and should be unique. It should describe the content and target subject of the web page.

When I do a web site audit this is one of the first areas I take a look at because if it’s not right then your site will have little chance of getting a good ranking for the subject matter.

Don’t put your company name in a title as you’ll already rank well for your company name, use the title to say something about the page. For example if you are a hotel in say Crail with a restaurant and you want to attract visitors to your restaurant page don’t use “Crail Hotel restaurant”. Try something like “Fine dining in Crail in our beautiful beach front restaurant” or “Restaurant in Crail offering superb food from local sources”. Think about what your potential customers are searching for and address their requirements. Your title should be no more than 70 characters long.

What I didn’t know was that Google can actually display a different title on the search results to the one you have created for your web page. This is very important as it shows how much importance Google attributes to this tag and it also means that if you’re doing a poor job Google will try and fix it.

Here’s a video from Matt Cutts at Google talking though the benefits of snippets. In the first 2 minutes he discusses the titles issue.

If you’d liek to read more you can see the Google Support page on the subject here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35624

For many years backlinks have been very important for your sites authority and therefore it’s search ranking position.  However many SEO practitioners have used poor quality directories in the past as a way to drive search ranking up with minimum effort. Quite rightly Google has taken action, eventually, to stop this practice and if your site is unlucky enough to have had this work done in the past it will be causing your some ranking issues on Google.

Undoing this work is simple enough.  Here’s what to do:

1. Find all your inbound links.  There are many tools to do this, some free but the best tools are paid for. You might even want to outsource this to someone with the software as it’s a one time task.
2. Create a spreadsheet and start running through the links to see where they go.
3. I create two spreadsheets, the original links list and a bad links list.
4. I then run through the main list moving bad links over to the bad links spreadsheet.

Now you’ve got a list of the links you want to remove here’s what’s next:

• Firstly try and get in touch with the link site owner and request to be removed.  Many will assist, especially if they are a current site, but many won’t.  Once you’ve exhausted this option continue with point 2.
• Log into your Google account. This has to be the account where the analytics and webmaster tools have been setup for your domain.
• If you haven’t setup Webmaster Tools then do so now.
• Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main?pli=1 using the same browser you are logged into Google with.
• From the dropdown select the site your are removing the links for.

• Click on DISAVOW LINKS
• Read the disclaimer and click on DISAVOW LINKS
• You need the links you want to ask Google to ignore for your site in a .txt file with one link or one domain on each line.  Here’s an example of the content for your text file. You can disavow a complete domain or individual links. Do not use a word processor for this, use a simple text editor. Create a text file with all your links.

http://www.example.com/subdirectory/bad-quality-comments.html

http://www.example.com/subdirectory/bad-quality-paid-links.html

domain:dodgyseo.com

• Use the CHOOSE FILE button to find the text file from the location you’re stored it in and then click SUBMIT.
• Job done.

Here’s Matt Cutts of Google video advising on the use of the Google Disavow tool:

Here a link to the Google Help area for the disavow tool.

When the person doing your SEO asks you for access to your Google account I am sure you just hand over your username and password without thinking about it.  If they are completely trustworthy (like myself ) then that’s fine but sometimes this is a new relationship and it needs to grow a little before that level of trust exists and you may not want to upset them by saying no. But in actual fact they won’t be able to do their job without this data.

Also, in my opinion, if you use your Gmail account for your business correspondence then no matter how much your trust someone you shouldn’t give them access to your main account, it’s too risky.

So how do you avoid doing this whilst giving enough access for your SEO team to do their work.  Actually it’s very simple.

Here are the instructions on how to setup your SEO person as an Admin in your Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. You can easily unlink them as should the situation require it.

Google Analytics

• Login to your Google Analytics
• Click the ADMIN button in the top right and you’ll see this window
• Click on the breadcrumb marked in red and you’ll see this window

• Select the USERS tab marked in red and click on +ADD USER

• Add in the new users email address area and select the permission level. For full access select ADMINISTRATOR
• If you want to notify the user by email select this option then click ADD USER
• DONE

Google Webmaster Tools

1. Login to your Google account and get to the PRODUCTS area, usually in the menu on the left.
2. Select WEBMASTER TOOLS
3. Select the web site to add your SEO person to if you have more than one site on your system.
4. From the menu on the left select CONFIGURATION > USERS
5. In the top right select the link for MANAGE SITE OWNERS next to ADD A NEW USER
6. At the bottom of the page select ADD AN OWNER
7. In the email area please add the required email address and click CONTINUE
8. In the future if you want to remove me go back to this area and select UNVERIFY

Can SEO Work for Your Niche Business?

Ironically SEO (I prefer Web Presence Optimisation or WPO) often works best for very niche business that think it can’t work for them.

WHY? Because the more accurately you can define your audience, the more easily you can target them.  Simple really.

Here’s a Perfect Example

I’m an engineer by trade and I love helping the manufacturing and engineering sectors, especially as they in in difficult times at the moment.

These businesses are niche areas that you wouldn’t necessarily go into your pigeon-hole labeled “exciting businesses”. But let’s consider what these companies do.

They build machinery and components that can be used for a variety of industries, from the military to the medical profession to science laboratories. If you can’t find something interesting to write content for in that industry, you really are going to struggle!

You just have to ask what “are the key objects of the business” and “who they are trying to reach”. Once we understand this two things there are huge opportunities for some great content. Using the right keywords in your content and making the content of interest to your target audience will get you great rankings in the search engines. Your goal should be to become THE authority in your profession.

It CAN Work For Any Niche

No matter how small a niche your business falls into, there will be an audience for it, we just have to find it! There’s no such thing as a boring niche, so as long as you can find an angle to tell an interesting story about your business or niche, then WPO (sorry to all you SEO fans) can work for it.

Great content sells. Think about how you use the internet for research and selecting a product. Just define your USP (Unique Selling Point), create great content, and put your best foot forward. Give people the information and comfort they need to make a decision and you’ll win their trust. There’s no trickery here just an honest consultative approach. If you can use images and video then even better. The people who visit your site want to be engaged by what you have to offer the moment they click through to you via the search engines. Don’t let them down.

WPO (sorry SEO) can work for any business.  Here’s a bit of background on the last very chaotic 18 months in Google’s world

Search Engine Optimisation has changed a lot over the past 18 months, with so much more emphasis being placed on the quality of content, how your website looks and the quality of the link portfolio that your site is obtaining. Two updates, bizarrely named after cute animals, Panda and Penguin, were released into the wild by Google in 2011/2012, and they soon became gremlins, demolishing poor quality sites in their wake.

Suddenly, SEO had a dirty reputation. But here’s the great thing about this, the updates only hurt the people who were using dodgy methods to try and trick Google. The good guys are winning so watch this space for Google’s next furry animal update.

Always remember Quality not Quantity!

It’s new, it’s easy, and it’s on one of the most influential B2B social sites on the web.  But is it of any value?

Generally (and there are many exceptions, such as manners) the easier something is the less value it has. I’ve always valued the recommendations area in LinkedIn as it takes some thought and 15 minutes of your time to prepare one, and you’re only going to do this if you genuinely feel the recipient is worthy.

Endorsements are a simple click, you even get options presented front and middle when you log into LinkedIn, making it hard to ignore, although not all the time.  So does their ease of creation reduce their value?  My opinion is yes but I’d love to hear what you think.  I’ve had endorsements from people I have not had direct dealings with and although you can hide these how many will.

LISTING YOUR SKILLS

If you’ve not listed your skills you can’t get an endorsement so if you’ve not done this then log into your profile, go to your profile page, scroll down to the skills area under your CV and on the right click on + ADD A SKILL.

ENDORSEMENTS FROM PEOPLE YOU DON’T KNOW

The counter argument to this is also strong, especially if you’re a content generator.  I follow many people on blogs and social channels, and I genuinely feel I know many of them, even though we’ve never connected.  If I leave an endorsement for one of these people they will have no idea who I am but the endorsement will be genuine.

ENDORSEMENTS FOR SKILLS YOU HAVEN’T LISTED

Incidentally did you know you can leave an endorsement for someone for a skill they don’t have listed, this could be fun. Several friends are growing moustaches at the moment for charity and I consider this a skill as I still have bum fluff. If this happens the SKILL will appear in a blue box at the top of your profile.  You can put a X there to get rid of the suggestion or just hit ADD TO PROFILE to add the skill.

RETRACTION

You can also RETRACT an endorsement in the same way you can remove a recommendation, from your connections profile just hover over it and click UNDO.

CONCLUSION

Even though I am unsure of their value it still feels good to get endorsed, and making others feel good is a worthy reason to endorse them, assuming you are being genuine.  The long term value of LinkedIn endorsements will only become apparent once they have matured, but you can bet LinkedIn are looking at using endorsements as part of the search algorithm, so although I’m a naysayer, pleaseeeeee endorse me and make my day.

Now my spelling is at best average but what’s even worse is my typing.  Most mistakes I make are due to keyboard errors, and if we’re publishing directly onto the internet through our content management system, blogging or social media, we often don’t take the time to spell check. Get a free spell check for your site now.

I have a lovely client down in Kent that pointed out a howler on one of my blogs last year.  I’d actually said in my text that “spelling mistakes are unforgivable” and yes you guessed it, there were 2 in the article.  I created that post on the move on my iPad and this really brought home the importance of double-checking this seemingly simple process.

When I saw an article about this on the BBC web site last year I was intrigued. There seems to be a correlation between spelling and conversion.  This should come as no surprise as bogus web site and phishing attacks are often only obvious by their poor grammar and spelling, so it’s natural we would be suspicious. I’m bringing it up now as I’ve just had a situation with a new client where there were 20 spelling mistakes on a 10 page web site which we’ve now rectified.

What can you do to ensure there are no spelling mistakes on your site?

Get in touch with me and I’ll run a free spell check on your web site for up to 250 pages.  This will save you hours of time and it’s a genuine offer as no site should have spelling errors.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

Just send me (alan.tomkins@wsiwbm.co.uk)  your email address and the URL of your web site.  I won’t bother you or try to sell to you anything, I’ll just run the report and fire the report back to you.  It might take a day or so but it will be done.

See the BBC article here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14130854?goback=%2Egde_2419236_member_131404071

Those of you out there with an interest in keeping your site performing well on Google will probably have seen the announcement of the new update called Penguin on the 24th April.

Penguin is really a fine tune of the previous major update called Panda, seems more like Edinburgh Zoo every minute.

Panda was created to stop content farms and duplicate content getting good search engine rankings and to allow the original creators of the content to get the benefit of their work. That’s just the gist but basically Google is trying to reward those of us creating good quality content by giving us good rankings.

As those of you that have spoken to me will know content and keywords and my “banging my drum” subjects.  Google’s role in life is to deliver us as users the results that are most relevant to our search, and it can only do that if we are creating good quality content based on keyword phrases that are being search for.

If your site has seen a drop in its ranking over the last 3 weeks you might want to review the pages that have dropped based on the information below.

SUMMARY

It’s hard to know exactly what Google have changed but here’s what our research has shown are the issues Google are penalising:

• Internal links. If you are using internal links on your site (we all are and should be) based on keywords then you should consider adding more variety to the keywords you are using as the anchor text.
• Internal links. Keep keyword linking down to around 60% of your overall links.  Use words like “Click here” or the URL for the other 40%.
• Social relevance now has a higher importance to Google. If you are in a business that benefits from social media now is the time to take this more seriously.
• Web sites that are over optimised will be penalised.  This means if you have done any of the following:
  • Stuffing keywords in your titles
  • Overusing keywords in your headings
  • Overusing keywords in your content
  • Content that is designed for Google and not people
  • Hiding keywords in text that can’t be seen
  • Using ALT tags that are keyword stuffed
  • Inbound links from poor quality sources like link farms will have a detrimental effect on your ranking. Google has removed many of these link farms used by cheap generic link building services from its index.

ACTIONS FOR YOU

1)      Review your web site for the points above and rectify them immediately.

2)      Start to create new content for our site.  This can be new pages or blog posts.

3)      Consider Article Marketing to develop good quality inbound links.

Need help?  Just give me a call on 07860 659076 or email me at alan.tomkins@wsiwbm.co.uk

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) blogging is a method of writing relevant and unique blog posts to help you reach high rankings on the search engines for specific keywords and long tail keyword phrases. It is focused on keywords in your blog posts that requires the linking of these keywords in the anchor text that links (deep linking) to the most relevant page on your website.

SEO blogging is a very good strategy to build up rankings if you are interested in a content marketing strategy. If your blog is on the same domain as your website, every new blog post that you publish counts as another page on your domain, giving you more visibility than only having a website.

Even though SEO blogging is excellent, there’s a couple of mistakes that you should avoid when you start with your SEO blogging journey.

SEO blogging mistakes

Don’t focus on every topic: Your blog should be narrowly focused around a central topic. This will establish relevance and also attracts the readers that are interested in what you write. A blog focused on wedding ideas will attract readership and consistent traffic. A blog that talks about wedding ideas, business help, internet marketing and news about investments is unfocused and fails to attract great rankings.

Not using keywords: When writing a new blog post, select one primary keyword phrase that you will center your blog post around. Two very common mistakes are either not focusing on any keywords or trying to focus on multiple keywords.

Not using keywords in the title: Always try to use the primary keyword or phrase in your blog post title. The search engines gives high importance to the words in a blog post title . When you write your blog post title, remember that you want to attract readers and satisfy the search engines.

Not using keywords in your content: Try to use your main keyword phrase at least 2-3 times in the content of your blog post.

Not using links: Use the keywords you have selected in the anchor text of your links that points to the most relevant page on your website. Doing it this way is a very powerful SEO blogging strategy.

Posting duplicate content: Every blog post that you publish should be unique and original. Try to avoid re posting the same content on your blog as this is seen as duplicate content.  Even though you can get away with not being slapped by Google through the usage of canonical URL’s, you won’t rank for duplicate content.

Not posting interesting content: If you post interesting and original content on your blog, you will attract links from other bloggers and this can make your postings more powerful and helps your content to travel.

Francois is a certified Digital Marketing consultant living in South Africa. He is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant and enjoys training people in social media, anywhere in the world.