links

Getting ranked higher by Google (the second half) – A Locally Mini-Series

5th November 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

Part 2 of 2

Welcome back! In this second part of getting ranked higher by Google we are going to examine the other 3 factors that can influence where your website stands in the ranking.

They all inform the authoritative nature of your website, along with how trustworthy it is as well making sure that it is relevant.

Let’s re-cap…

So far we have look at page title descriptions, the actual text on a page, as well as the relevant SEO keywords being in the page URL. The remaining three factors look at links.

Links according to Google

Rather than being a little slapdash and shoving in links where you feel like it, think about how Google views a link.

Links, in the all-seeing eyes of Google, are votes for your website – in other words, it is popular and relevant.

F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s you may say, and go back to shoving links in but STOP… just for a moment and consider how you are using these links, as well as other considerations, such as…

Certain links are considered more authoritative than others and will look better in the eyes of Google if the originating link is from a website that Google already ranks quite highly.

*Here at Locally, in our blog posts we use links; however, we rarely use more than 3 in a longer blog post and always check that a. the website we are linking to is relevant and b. it is an authoritative one. We like websites that complement our business, as well as the topic we are blogging about. We always use the links within the main body of the blog article too*

Google PageRank is the name of the algorithm that sorts the wheat from the chafe in terms of whether links are any good or not. Don’t confuse this with a websites’ Page Rank, Google used to publish Page Ranks but these haven’t been updated for a long while, so now you’ll have to find other ways of working out how authoritative Google thinks a site is. Most SEO’s go on either MOZ’s SEO Explorer Domain Authority or Majestic’s Trust Flow versus Citation, but as neither are Google, these are informed guesses rather than definitive.

In terms of links, don’t overstuff and don’t use ones from less-than-salubrious sources. You have been warned.

And so 2 of the remaining factors that can influence where your page comes in the rankings of Google are all to do with links, with the final one looking at filters.

Number 4: Domain Links

This is about links on other websites that link to your websites; so in other words, someone writing about SEO and Google rankings in the future might find this post and think ‘wow!’, and copy and paste the web page URL in to their website. We would be chuffed as it means that Locally’s website is gaining in authority in the eyes of Google.

Links help your online reputation and so if you can get a link from another relevant, authoritative website then all the better. BUT, do not fall in the trap of buying links as Google takes a very, very dim view of this and rubbish links could actually be harming your page ranking.

In the past the SEO industry was nearly 100% focussed on generating links and much of those were dubious if not downright spammy. Google has pretty much killed of that ‘quick win’ approach. Today any SEO offering you 50,000 backlinks and instant success, a technique that worked a few years ago, is likely to seriously damage your rankling today.

Google had realised that websites that were stuffing themselves full of shoddy links were outstripping websites that were more genuine in their approach to commerce. And so a filter was ‘switched on’, if you like, that started to look for websites that were simply using any old link… so beware the backlinks, the link farms and all those other ‘get rich quick’ types of schemes. It can be very difficult to bounce back from being penalised by Google.

In fact the best way to handle links is actually not to try and earn them, but instead write authoritative content and get is out there by social or any other means. If your content is good, people will link to it.

Number 5: Page specific links

You can form links within your own website too and this can also help in terms of website being seen as relevant, authoritative and trustworthy in the eyes of Google. Your home page may be the landing page that people find, but if you want them to bob along to your blog, put a link on your home page. Keep these links running down the side of your page too and, if you have an active page specifically for a certain time of year, then link this page to other pages in your website.

This is seen as helping the customer to navigate your site; customers like this as it is an easy way to get around and make a purchase. They will buy more… and you can see where this is going!

Number 6: Quality filters

The Google Panda update at the start of 2014 was all about improving the user experience on the search engine, in other words, improving the quality of the search results that user would see. One area that it choose to look at was the user experience of a website; how easy is your website to use?

Two factors of usability were previously not heavily on the SEO radar, but now are becoming increasing important

Performance. Sites that respond quickly are easier to use, so that is a significant usability signal. Bad code, unoptimised images and slow servers are things that need to be addressed.
Multi-device friendly. Today websites are visited from phones & tablets as well as desktops. Infact many sites have 50% of their traffic from mobile devices. Google is now looking and analysing how multi device friendly your site is. If your site is not currently responsive, now is a good time to make a small investment to make it so.

What about social media signals?

Social signals as they are known, is when a customer or user likes, shares, tweets, G+’s, pins etc. content or pages from your website.

If you surf the web, you will find a range of conflicting advice and opinion about how much social signals do or do not play in ranking your website, in both Google and other search engines. However, if you look at your competitors, as well as other popular websites, you will see that they have high counts in terms of shares, tweets and G+’s and the like.

You can see them as links in some ways, but those that say social signals should be used with caution point to the fact that some of these likes and shares etc. can be fabricated or bought. And just like spammy links, buying hundreds if not thousands of likes or shares can be to your detriment.

See social signals in the same way as links; invite people to genuinely like and share things on your website.

Put it in to practice!

Armed with the knowledge of the 6 factors that could make a very big difference to your website ranking you know need to do two things:

Take a look at your competitor sites that are ranking higher than yours – what are they doing, that you are not? What can you emulate and improve on?
Look at the 6 factors again and then look at your website – is your website up to scratch?

If you have enjoyed our two part mini-series, why not joy sign up for our newsletter?

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Getting ranked higher by Google – A Locally Mini-Series

29th October 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

Part 1 of 2

Is it your ‘dream’ that when potential customers search for a product or service that you offer, that on page 1 of the search engine listings, your business ranks up there with other great companies?

It is not a pipe dream; it can be a reality BUT, you need to be focused and committed – and you also need to be doing the right things, from setting your pages up correctly, to telling the search engines you exist to then staying committed, constantly pushing your website so that it looks and ‘feels’ authoritative and trustworthy.

In this first part of a two part mini-series, here at Locally we take a look at how online, local businesses can figure in those top spots on page 1, starting with understanding the ranking equation used by one of the major search engines, Google.

Why Google?

It is huge. Gargantuan. It has the lion’s share of the search engine market (up to 90% according to some estimates). With 2 billion Internet users worldwide, it is probably not unrealistic to estimate that half of these will use Google as either their preferred or default search engine. It would be silly, almost the kiss of death to ignore Google, there are other search engines out there. However, for the purpose of this Locally Mini-Series, we will focus on Google.

In a nutshell

To understand how to win the coveted crown for a ‘Page 1 Top Spot’, you need to understand two things:

How Google’s algorithm works – what it uses to rank pages
Understand why your competitors are ranking higher than you, at that particular time.

Google’s algorithm

Ah yes, just like algebra at school, we can see your eyelids getting heavy as you prepare for a mid-afternoon nap but now is not the time.

First thing’s first; apart from the very top executives at Google, no one really knows all the secrets, twists and turns that this search engine uses to create its magic page 1 list but, there are some highly intelligent technically minded people who have a fairly decent idea of how the algorithm crunches number and data.

But, don’t forget that this algorithm also changes over time, so what was working this time last year, might not be delivering the results now. This way, the web is kept vibrant and fresh.

Walking in Google’s shoes – try and see what it sees

Basically what we are saying is this: when a customer searches for something on the Internet using its browser, they want to see results that are accurate. We all know the frustration of surfing for information on something specific, only to find that what we get is some tripe from a far off place that makes no sense.

And so, you need to see what Google will see when it takes a look at your website – think relevance, popularity and quality. If people are buying from or using a website, it must be offering something worth having. It must offer a worthwhile buying experience, and customers must be happy with it. Hence, to Google, that website looks a fairly good one, so they move it up the rankings…

Simple?

In that case, your website needs to show good it is relevant, popular and offers high quality experience, such as an authoritative blog or news section, along with FAQs and the like. In this way, customers may also be reviewing your products or services, liking your page, enjoying your tweets and just generally in conversation with you.

Google says that it has 200 variable factors that it uses to rank websites but, there are some things that can be done that will help you website climb the slippery pole on to page 1 – and stay there.

So sharpen your elbows, because here are 6 factors that can influence your ranking with Google (yes, only 6… but they are important).

The Locally Whistle Stop Tour of 6 Things You Can Do To Get a Higher Ranking with Google (might work with other search engines too!)

Tickets please! Now fasten your seat belts and let’s look at the first 3 of these factors (the remaining 3 will be addressed in Part 2 of this blog post… due for publication on the Locally blog on Wednesday 5th November)

Number 1: Page Titles

This matters because it is a description of what the page is about. It must be accurate and at least 3 words long. So, in your page if you are targeting a particular keyword or phrase, then this should be included in your page title and in the right order.

E.g. if your home page keywords were ‘local (and) online personalised gifts (for) sailors’ then you would use this in the page title html description.

The (and) and (for) are in brackets to highlight that they are STOP words. These are words that Google does not count in its searches, simply because you would have all sorts of weird and wonderful results. There are literally hundreds more stop words…

Number 2: Page text

Search engines read words quickly and easily, but like the stop words from above, they don’t bother with the connective words, instead they look for the important ones, if you like; the more times the word or phrase pops up in the page, Google assumes that is what the page is about.

Hence, if you want people to find you product or service because your business offers flexible website design for local online businesses, then this phrase would be used maybe two or three times, and other keywords or phrases that relate to this.

In other words, the page is relevant.

Over-stuffing – we think over-stuffing should be a word entered in the dictionary, a bit like oversharing. In any given 500 words, do not over-use your keyword or phrase – use it, at most, 5 times, but 3 or 4 will do just fine, or actually once may be enough. Over-using a phrase will make your text look artificial; it won’t look like to a eyes of a real person, and neither will it look right to Google (or any search engine).

Number 3: keywords in the URL

You also have control over whether these keywords appear in the page URL or not (not sure about URLs – check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxu7eZrPUyQ)

It can really help if your keywords are in the order that a person searching for something like your product or service would type them in; this is a little SEO tip which is why this blog post is called ‘getting ranked higher by Google’ because you never know, someone out there may be frustrated that their competitors are on page one and want to how they can be too…

In summary

We have covered three factors that we can directly influence how Google sees a website in terms of being relevant, authoritative and trustworthy and they are:

Page titles
Page text
Keywords in the URL of a page

Want to know what the other three factors are? Great!

Join us on Wednesday November 5th when your second part of this Locally Mini-Series will be published – in the meantime, how does your website rank?

Shall we blog?

29th September 2014 by Alan Leave a Comment

Like an over-excited puppy, you created a blog on your website because that is what brings traffic in (all the research said so…) and you started with gusto, creating blogs that you faithfully published every week and then…

(whistles, looks at watch)

(carries on whistling, admires hair in mirror)

…nothing.

(Disappointed sigh)

**Why as a local, online business, you should be blogging**

It’s all about content. It’s all about thriving and surviving in a competitive market place and even though you think that your local customers are just fab, you all need to sharing your eggs around your basket. Relying on one market for business, local or otherwise, is the ‘putting your eggs in one basket’ thing, hence where there are fluctuations in the market place they hit you hard, their impact magnified. Being in business is all about looking for the next thing, improving, creating and selling whether that is a local butchers with award winning sausages or a local foot clinic.

Your customers’ tastes change as they influenced by marketing, opinion shifts and budget constraints; they are busy people too so booking online for a foot treatment is great – unless they don’t find your website. We live in a 24 hour world, where we spend the majority of our time in front of different screens, from our smartphone to our tablet, then mooching around on the laptop for the next big thing.

But, people search the web differently too. They may think they have an ingrowing toe nail but how do you know? They hop on the web and do some research and guess what? Google (or any search engine) will note their location and you, wrote a blog or two on the perils on ingrowing toe nails. Google likes the look of your blog, as people have been reading it and liking it or sharing and guess what? Your website bobs up in front of their very eyes and, better still, they can book online and you have a new customers booked in for a consultation on Wednesday afternoon at 4.30pm.

Imagined if that happened once or twice a week; that’s 8 customers a month that you may not have had before…

“So I’m blogging for survival then?”

Sounds a bit melodramatic but yes and, well… er, no.

There are, the last time someone counted 164 million blogs – but that number has probably fluctuated up and down several zillion times since the man in the back room started his tally chart.

The vast majority of these blogs will have less than a 1,000 visitors a month and represent a disaster zone. Why?

You blog for months and months, seemingly for little reward and it is human nature that if you slog your guts out for months and months on something you find stressful and difficult, another tiny little thing to add to your already busy day, you will stop doing it. Fact.

How to avoiding failing at blogging…

Creating content it is GREAT! But do you market it?

If you don’t, you are not promoting yourself or your business hence you will not extend your readership passed you mum and your sister. Their ‘liking’ or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook is great, but you need more likes and shares and comments and readers…. So promote it!

And don’t forget it is not just promoting new blogs; promote older ones too. If there is an article in the news on the importance of cutting your toenails properly and you wrote a piece on it a few months, promote your blog with some well-placed hashtags.

You have permission to jump on the bandwagon.

You will then find, possibly, that people will read some of your other podiatry diatribes on the ingrowing toenails, bunions and athlete’s foot and learn something; people like being informed, hence your blog starts to gain authority with an increased following.

The next step is to start linking your blog with other authoritative sites; the ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours approach’. Again, this is all about building a reader base so why not try your hand submitting a ‘guest post’ to another site, with a lovely link to your own blog? And then, ask someone to do the same for you – they write a post for your site, and your share links and readers back and forth.

Avoid: plagiarism and replicas

What does not go down well is nicking stuff from other people or simply writing a blog that says the same as everyone else’s. This can be a bit stuff as there is only so many ways and times you can take about a subject and, if it is current and in the news headlines then a blog on it simply adds you voice to many others.

Nicking someone’s stuff that they have possibly spent hours crafting is not only morally slightly-dodgy, but can earn you a penalty point from Google and other search engines. Before you know, your blog and website has disappeared without a trace and it is very hard to get it back in Google’s good books again.

The lesson is thus…

Creating content and posting it regular is great – once a week is fab
Promoting it via your social media platforms is also great
Keep promoting older blogs too
Advanced bloggers also look to guests posts and links with like-minded blogs and websites
Keep doing it!

Adding Text and Image Links to WordPress Posts and Pages

15th August 2013 by Alan Leave a Comment

A question often asked is can I add links to sites other than my own? With WordPress this is very easy and like everything, it is even easier if someone shows you how.

I have created a short video demonstrating adding a text link and also a image link to a page or post within WordPress 3.6.

It shows how the link can be created and also how to set it so the link opens in a new browser tab. It is always recommended that when send a visitor of yours to another site that a new tab is opened, that way the visitor can find your site again more easily.

Take a look at the video.