Search Engine Optimisation
WordPress SEO Tips
Wordpress is without a doubt one of the most popular open source platforms available for blogging. The popularity of Wordpress stems from its simplicity of use combined with the customisations available to improve SEO rankings.
Some of you already using Wordpress may not even understand the scope of what can be achieved with it. There are customisations, modules, plugins and themes that can significantly improve your rankings in the search engines.
Link building practices aside, here are some Wordpress customisations that will assist your SEO rankings.
Please note-this information only applies to Wordpress sites hosted on your own domain.
5 Simple Actions To Protect Your SEO Rankings
You invest tens of thousands of dollars and many months, maybe even years, implementing search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies to improve your search engine rankings to drive sales and profits for your company.
You implement blogging, article marketing, social bookmarking, link building, press releases and a host of other strategies on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis…
You’re ranking on the first page of Google for your most valuable keyword phrase and your business is growing as a result.
You ensure that you are on top of every part of your SEO strategy, ensuring that your rankings remain high…
But have you thought about everything?
Probably not.
How Search Engine Rankings & User Behaviour Affect Website Traffic
We all want to be number 1 on Google. For most people that is the only target, but what does that actually mean in terms of results, and how do the different ranks affect traffic to your website?
There have been a number of research experiments conducted by universities over the last decade testing user behaviour on a number of search engines with many using methods unique from the others. However, one technique has been more successful than others – eye-tracking.
Simply put, eye-tracking is a type of software that records and measures eye movements. This method has been used in several experiments for measuring attention given to each site in a search engine results page.
Google SEO Guide & Mindmap
Google has released a ‘Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide‘ for website owners who want to improve their website’s ability to rank in Google’s search engine.
The newly released guide mostly covers on-page optimisation, and only briefly talks about link building strategies, which are the real key to SEO. Reading this guide put a smile on my face as it reaffirms that our on-page optimisation strategy is right on the money.
11 of the Best (Free) SEO Tools and How to Use Them
Just as a there are tools which make the process of building a house easier, there are tools which make the process of ranking a website at the top of a search engine easier.
Every seasoned SEO professional has their own arsenal of SEO tools which they use every day to help them rank websites. It saves time, effort and provides a strong advantage against those competitors who do not use the same tools.
Here are 11 of the SEO tools which I use on a regular basis to rank websites at the top of the search engines. You’ll note that there is a strong focus on Google – this is because ranking a website at the top of Google will, in my experience, drive anywhere between 10x and 100x the traffic of a top ranking in Yahoo or MSN combined.
Organic Backlinks – Search Engine Gold
With search engine algorithms ever changing, it is difficult to know what will be considered valuable by search engines in the future. In saying that, we touch upon a very common discussion regarding link building; is it better to build a large quantity of back links or spend more time to get better quality back links?
If you are involved in any kind of search engine optimisation you should constantly be considering how to spend your time to get the best results and, if you are as busy as most people, you may not be able to use both methods of link building. Now many online marketers may still be advising you that the number of links is what search engines value the most, and they will proceed to build as many links as possible, as quickly as possible, and by any means necessary. But, with the release of Google’s updated Historical Data Patent in March this year, it is clear that this is not the case.
10 Link Building Strategies for Higher Search Engine Rankings
When it comes to search engine optimization, getting other websites to link to your website is the most important factor in achieving top search engine rankings. Here is a list of 10 link building strategies which you should be implementing for top search engine rankings (in no particular order):
1. Write quality articles – write quality articles that other websites will want to post on their websites and link to. The higher the quality of the article, the more one-way links you’ll get. The best articles to write are ‘how-to’ and informational articles. Stay away from self-promotion.
2. Start a WordPress blog – setup a WordPress blog on your website and post articles to it once per week. It’s a great way to build the size of your website, keep your website content fresh and get incoming links. Plus Google loves WordPress!
SEO Video – How to Use Google’s Keyword Tools for SEO
If you are currently implementing search engine optimization (SEO) for your website or are thinking about it, then this article will be worth tens of thousands of dollars for you.
Conducting effective keyword research from an SEO perspective is critical, because the next 12 months of SEO activities and investment will be focused on the words you identify before you start optimising.
The key to a successful SEO campaign is selecting keywords where a top ranking will earn you more profit per month than the cost of achieving and maintaining those rankings.
If you get it wrong, you could spend tens of thousands of dollars on achieving a top 10 ranking, only to find that the top ranking is not making you any money!
How To Create A Blog
It’s possible to make a lot of money from a blog, but if that’s your goal you need to be thinking long term and have a good base from which to start.
Firstly you need a subject for your blog. Many people make the mistake of writing about anything and everything, but if you are serious about getting your blog indexed by Google, showing up in search results and getting plenty of visitors, then you need to focus on a specific subject.
It stands to reason that if you are going to write about something every day or two for what could prove to be many months and hopefully even years, it needs to be something you are very interested in. There are two main reasons for this:
The Real Value of Search Engine Optimization (Video)
Optimising Your Video And Images For Search Engines
In order to be recognised on major search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others, you have to utilise SEO, or search engine optimization, when creating web content. While many people are able to do this using keywords and phrases in their written content, they oftentimes forget to add keywords to their visual content.
By not adding keywords to video, graphics, pictures, charts, and other images, you are missing out on a good opportunity for increased exposure on the Internet.
Are Link Exchanges Worth It?
When it comes to SEO, the new trend is to create back links or links that are placed on another web site so people and search engines will be able to find your site easily on the web. But you should trade links with every website that invites you to? While there are a number of ways to create back links that don’t include linking to another small business website, it is the easiest way to attract online attention.
Wikipedia & Search Engine Optimisation – #2 Is The New #1
If you have tried searching for a topic using Google lately, you may have noticed that Wikipedia entries are ranking higher and higher, many times ranking in the number one and number two positions. While Wikipedia has a reputation for being less than factual in the information they present, many people have found their articles useful.
Anyone with an interest in a topic can write an article and submit it to the Wikipedia database. If another person wants to add to it, they can edit sections and upload new information. Even though all sources must be documented, this has not stopped inaccurate information from being published online.
Writing Effective Press Releases That Are Keyword Rich
While the practice of writing keyword rich press releases has been around since 2004, it wasn’t until 2006 that keyword rich press releases became popular. As a result, press release spam and competition for higher rankings has increased dramatically.
You can still use SEO in your press releases to attract a lot of attention online, but you have to be careful which news wire services to use and craft a well-written release that includes popular keywords. Your release should give a call to action by including hyperlinks that take readers to a landing page. A landing page that asks for email address will increase your opt-in list. Including offers such as coupons in your release will tempt readers even more.
Lost in the Black Hole
The Internet black hole. It’s a place that, as a website owner or developer, you don’t want your website be in. With 489,876,431 entries existing per key phrase and only 1,000 entries being listed per search, it is easy for your website to get lost in the void.
But, there is a way to avoid getting trapped in the black hole. There is a way for your website to be listed in the 1,000 entries. Without this technique, there is no way for search engine users to find your website unless you give them your URL directly. And, that’s not very efficient.
The answer to evading the black hole is keyword themes.
