Proud to be UK
Recently Google admitted to having found a problem with .com websites that are hosted in the UK not ranking well in the Google UK only search results. This is a problem faced by quite a few businesses who want to have a 'global' look and so choose the .com domain, yet really only want the UK market.
It just goes to show that thinking about every step of your business is vital. Don't be afraid of declaring yourself as a .co.uk if your prime target audience are UK customers, and at the same time I would certainly purchase the .com so that you can redirect to the .co.uk site for now and look to introduce a full .com site over time aimed at the US market.
Google are looking to resolve this problem where possible, but this will only show further 'holes' for a period of time, with many people looking at hosting abroad as it can be purchased cheaper, but then confuses the search engines as to where to rank the sites. Again, I would recommend spending a little more for a good quality UK hosting package if you are targetting the UK audience.
Be proud to be UK and be found by UK customers!
Google Rankings
One of the things that many customers ask us is how we will increase their sales, and the honest answer we always give them is that they will have to increase their sales and not us. We cannot make anyone buy their products. This might sound strange and an admittance of defeat, but it is simply the truth. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is not about selling peoples services or products, it is about getting people to the website who are looking for the product or service. The sale is the job of the website, the product and the pricing - which we have limited or no control over.
Yes, we always advice our customers if we think that improvements could be made to the website to aid sales (e.g. design improvements, customer sales process improvements, functional improvements, extra content / explanations, more product details etc etc), and if we have been involved in the initial website development, then we may even make some of these changes as part of the service, however the actual product and pricing is the site owners responsibility.
Before anyone commences with a website they should know that their product has a market and what that market is willing to pay for the product. At
intheopen we will try our hardest to glean this understanding from you so that we can be sure that your market is the same target audience entering the terms and phrases on the search engine, but we cannot change your pricing. Why do I seem to have a bee in my bonnet about this? Well, we have had a long hard struggle with a customer who has been complaining about lack of sales. We have made many recommendations about improvements to his site and have many good rankings, but at the end of the day his products look to be hugely overpriced.
When we did a little market research, we found he was the most expensive we could find on the internet. So the answer to why the good number of visitors the site was now attracting was not showing as sales figures was very simple - his products cost too much!
So the moral of this story is? Well, from my perspective a marketing drive of any sort should be a joint effort between the company and the marketing partner. That is true for all marketing and not just internet marketing. Make sure you understand what to expect results wise, but also be honest and realistic about what you should expect. Visitors are great, but sales are better, and that takes a good look in the mirror as well as expert advice.
No, we have not fallen out with this customer, and yes we are still providing a good service, and yes he accepts his prices are too high....but he still hasn't changed them!!! ah well!
Labels: intheopen - the search engine optimisation specialists, SEO
SEO via good PR
One of the areas of SEO that is often missed is good PR. If you can regularly submit good PR articles to relevant news sites, or even just industry related websites, then you will be gaining good quality links back to your own website.
What stops most people taking advantage of this extremely powerful marketing tool? Time. People just do not have the time to commit to this additional activity. Yet it need not be that time consuming. Working with an SEO company that can provide PR services, means that most of this work can be taken from you. All you have to do is provide information. A good PR company can find the story within your business, you just have to provide as much information about what is going on in your business and in your industry as possible.
Ideally the place you want to reach is where people are looking to your site for the answers and the stories. When this starts to happen then your PR is working and so is your SEO, as this will mean that you will be quoted and referenced on other sites as a good place to find out the latest information. Each of these links will help to boost how the search engines view your site.
As always it is not rocket science, but it does require commitment and time. Two of the hardest things for a busy business to find!
I would suggest that you make the time though, as this will help to grow your business. At intheopen we encourage our customers to work with us to grow their own business. We don't want SEO to appear to be a mythical power, that they will never comprehend. It is far better for all concerned if we all know what is expected.
Also, remember that most news companies will be grateful if the news comes to them, rather than them having to find the news. Especially in specific industry related news. So you will actually become seen as a useful point of reference. Remember, make the article news worthy, make sure it uses the keywords that you want people to find you under, make sure it references back to your own website for more details on specific subjects and make sure you keep a history on your own website as well.
Suddenly that latest news page everyone dreads keeping up to date, could become your best friend!
Labels: PR, SEO
Simply does it
One of the things we have noticed about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is that people expect so much, so quickly and yet are not willing to compromise.
People are very protective of the design and format of their website, and rightly so, but are sometimes then blinkered to the actual purpose of their website - to bring customers! One of the common problems we come across is that people have spent a lot of money having a flash website built - and I mean using the technology Flash, and not just looking flash. Unfortunately, despite improving and always trying to change, most of the search engines just cannot index a flash site and so it is never going to rank highly.
If you have spent money on a purely flash website (a little flash does no harm at all), and you want your business to grow via the web, then unfortunately you have wasted your money. This is why, we always urge our customers to think long and hard about why they want a website in the first place, and to make this 'goal' the driving force behind the design and functionality and not the other way round.
The other area that people are protective over is their content. Again, it is very understandable why, but again there needs to be compromise. Your website, must say the right things to a visitor to convert them to a customer, but it must also say the right things to a search engine so that the pages are ranked for the appropriate terms and phrases.
Always keep in mind that a content heavy site will very rarely be read in depth by a visitor. Your sales text and imagery, needs to be short and punchy, but at the same time it can be search engine friendly.
All I ask is that you realise a good SEO company is trying to help you gain more business and not just get good rankings. Both the business goals and the search engines should always be considered at all stages.
Labels: SEO
Nice Break
It was great to have Christmas and New Year off and to spend time with the family, but now it is back to work!
Whilst I was having time off, the search engines were still working hard to rank our clients websites. Many of them made great improvements in ranking during November and several have had a good increase in sales during the build up to Christmas, which is fantastic for our clients and great news for us to have happy customers.
Adding good quality links to the sites that we have put the work in with is key to seeing the improvement in ranking. The quality links referring back to our sites with the key terms and phrases enables the search engines to see that our sites are both relevant and important. And these are the criteria that the search engines are trying to find with any site, as important and relevant are the things their users want when they enter a search term.
Search engine optimisation is about giving the visitor and the search engines what they want. Both are looking for the same thing and that is a website that is relevant to the term entered. It is no use getting to position 1 on Google for a phrase that no one is looking for, or for a phrase that does not relate to your core business. And at the same time it is not possible for every business to appear at the top for the same generic phrase, so the ideal solution is to combine the core phrases with industry, location and/or product specific phrases that help generate appropriate traffic and therefore a return on investment.
It's not rocket science, but so many people seem to miss these basic steps when starting an SEO campaign. At the end of the day it is not the indepth analysis of the business that is key, but simply that the right visitors come to the site.
Labels: SEO
Avoid the Christmas rush
One of the biggest mistakes people make when optimising their website is to try and rush as much in as possible. Optimisation is a game for the patient and not for those in a hurry.
With optimisation you need to make the obvious changes quickly to make the site search engine friendly, the on-going changes such as content and links need to be done patiently and over a longer period of time. Why? Two reasons really, firstly you need to be able to see the effect any changes have had on your search engine rankings, and this can take some time to show.
If you make a huge number of changes and the site suddenly moves up or down the rankings quite dramatically, you will not be aware of which changes were positive and which were negative.
The second reason not too rush is that if you bombard the search engines with new links and additional information there is always the chance that they will discount a lot of your work as spamming, rather than legitimate links. It is far better to work on gaining a good number over a longer period and showing that the site is constantly growing and developing.
Avoid the christmas rush and have a good holiday.
Labels: intheopen - the search engine optimisation specialists, SEO
Now we're getting somewhere
Where? Well at least one customer is going to Norway!
The client received their first confirmed booking from the Search Engines before the first months SEO work was complete. Now that is impressive. It isn't this way for all our clients, as some sites are not as well written as this one (though we did develop it, so it is understandable).
Is the site development the only reason? No. This site is well written, but it also has a lot of keyword relevant content, which makes it very appealing to the search engines. For some clients we have to develop this content with them over time, as well as adjust the site structure to be more search engine friendly and so this can take much longer.
The good news is that this client is moving onwards and upwards, and with close to 30 enquiries coming from the website daily it should not be long before the next customers are sending their cheques as well.
What next from us? We are now looking at how the information is displaying on the search engines and building up the link program. Some of the dynamic pages need to be more search engine friendly and this will mean tweaking the coding structure to ensure the search engines not only rank the site well, but also show the site to it's best.
Labels: SEO
