Super Simple Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for Beginners

What is the purpose of your website? If you can't easily answer that question, then I highly recommend having a good think about it because everything you do with your site should be to serve that purpose.

Chances are that your website is there to be useful or interesting or to sell stuff to a particular audience. When I say audience, I mean people - human beings. Therefore, it makes sense that the content of your site is for them (this is very important to remember). But, how will they find your site in the first place? That's right, by using a search engine such as Google. So, not only should your site be good for people, but it must also be search engine 'friendly' so that people can find it.

The process of trying to make your website appear at the top of search results is called Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO).

Before we get into SEO, there's something you should know if you're about to have a site designed and created for you...

A web designer will design your site and put the words you provide on the pages. A good website designer will construct the site such that search engines will 'understand' it (i.e. be able to determine what it is about so they can find it and place it in search results). However, it is not usual for a web designer to optimise your site for search engines - this is an additional, time-consuming job... one that you'll have to pay for or do yourself. Whichever route you choose, it is good to know a bit about the topic, so this is for you.

Really Simple Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is a huge topic. The purpose of what follows is intended as a very light introduction to the principles so that you can learn more and carry out the task yourself or, alternatively, have a knowledgeable conversation with someone you're planning to hire for the job.

There are two areas to look at with SEO:

1. On page optimisation
   
   This covers everything that you can do on your site to make it have the best chance of ranking well for a given phrase or search term. You can control this.
   
   
2. Off site optimisation
   
   This covers everything out of your control that will make your site rank more highly for a given phrase. Basically, it is all about how many (and which) sites link to yours.
   

It's worth exploring these briefly. I'd say that on-page optimisation is absolutely worth doing because it is within your control and gives your site the best chance of ranking well. However, off-site optimisation will have a much bigger effect on your rankings. This is because, if ranking was entirely dependent on what people did on their own site, then (some) people would try to cheat the system. To counter this, Google looks at how many sites link to yours. If there are lots, then Google is more inclined to think 'ah, this must genuinely be of interest, let's push it up the rankings'. However, this is also open to abuse, so Google will also look at the 'quality' of the sites that link to you. If you have sites like BBC.co.uk and CNN.com linking to you (or indeed, important 'authority' sites for your topic), then that will boost your rankings even higher. This is called link building, and can happen naturally if people have a reason to want to link to your site. Alternatively, you'll need to find ways of getting links (such as having your site listed in online directories).

What phrases are your audience searching for?

It is important to know what people are searching for, and it isn't always obvious. One place to start would be to look at competitor websites and run them through a tool like the SEOmoz Term Extractor. Once you know what your competition is targeting, head over to Google's Keyword Tool and plug those phrases in. It will then tell you the number of searches for each phrase in a month - and also provide you with similar phrases that are being searched for that you might never have thought of.

Once you think you have relevant phrases for your audience, check the competition and target (optimise your site for) phrases that will bring traffic volume and that you have a good chance of ranking highly for. How do you work out your chances? Read on.

Amount of Competition

Ranking well for an obscure term is relatively easy. For example, if you searched for 'hairy hungry horny hippos' in Google, I wouldn't expect there to be much competition. Having typed that, I just did a quick search and there are 1,030,000 pages in the world with those words (who'd have thought it)! Google reports this number on the right just above the 1st result. Now if you search again and put the phrase in "quotes" you'll see there are zero results. What happened there? The first search (without quotes) is a 'broad match', it means those 1 million results had all of the words somewhere on the page. The second search was a 'phrase' match, which means no pages had those words together on the page in that precise order. Well, they didn't until now - it'll be interesting to see if I hit page 1, or even the number 1 spot in a few weeks when Google finds this page.

The point of all this is that, for each page on your site, you want to target a particulate phrase. And, whilst it is easy to rank well for an obscure phrase, if no-one is searching for that phrase, then you still won't gain any visitors to your site.

Normally (not always - and lucky you if you find one), the more popular a phrase, the more competition there is. This means it is more difficult to get a top spot in the search results. So, in this stage, we've checked the amount of competition for a given phrase.

Quality of Competition

The amount of competition isn't the only thing to consider though. If you're going to beat the competition, you also need to know how good they are. For this you want to know their Google Page Rank (a scale from 1-10, 10 meaning that Google think they're a mega authority site) and the number of backlinks (links) to the site. The easiest way to check this is to use the SEO for Firefox addon.

If the top 10 spots have a high (5 and above) Page Rank and lots of Y!Links (Yahoo's backlink checker), then you'll have to invest a lot of time, effort and money, to beat them. The principle to beating the competition is to look at what they're doing, and do it better (better on-page and off-site SEO).

So, what you're looking for is a sweet-spot where you stand a good chance of ranking highly, but also know that enough people are searching for the phrase to bring visitors to your site.

A note about Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

It is estimated that the number 1 spot in Google will get 40% or so of the clicks, and this drops rapidly down to approximately 0.5% for the number 10 spot. That means that if 1000 people are searching for your phrase every month and you're on page 1 in the number 10 spot, it will only translate to 5 or so visitors! By the way, well done for getting on page 1 at all, it isn't easy.

Don't forget, it's VERY important...

When you're writing your website content, you're writing for people, not search engines. If people find your site and think it is rubbish, that won't do you much good either!

Wrapping it all up - and a recommendation!

I hope this has proved a useful introduction to the most basic principles of SEO. As I've mentioned a few times now, it really is a huge topic and if it's something you want to understand properly and put into practice, you'll have to read a lot deeper.

To get you started (and in addition to the links provided above), take a look at some of the free SEOmoz tools and guides. For on-page optimisation, I recommend using their web developer cheat sheet.

Finally, I started my SEO adventure with a great book that I'd highly recommend, SEO School by Naomi Dunford (that's an affiliate link BTW folks). It's an easy and enjoyable read and it will help you take more practical first steps following on from this article.
 

SEO sExperts - The Traffic Effect of Mentioning Porn in your Blog

Have you ever wondered why so many web pages, especially blogs, mention the word 'porn' even when the site has absolutely nothing to do with porn (and my site is now one of these!)?

If you don't believe me, see for yourself, the results are truly shocking...

Here's a neat little trick for you to find pages on a given site that mention a particular word. In a Google search, simply type "site:WebSiteAddress intext:Word". For example:

site:www.seomoz.org intext:porn

In the results you'll be able to see how many pages on the site mention that word and optionally choose to filter by when the page was indexed (found) by Google. It's the volume and frequency that is shocking.



In my example above, I've used SEOmoz.org - a site which is very much about search engine optimization. So why have they got over 200 pages which mention porn?

Shocking News... SEX SELLS!!!

It remains as true today in our online, connected world as it ever has. According to Sam Niccolls (referenced below) the "porn industry pulls in close to 1 billion dollars"! That's big business. When you couple that with the facts that Alexa says 4 of the top 100 sites are porn sites and Google has 100 million porn related searches monthly (yes, monthly!), it's easy to see how appearing in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for porn could have a significant effect on your traffic.

Now obviously someone searching for porn will not spend long on your technology site. What I'm saying is this - it is NOT a good way to get qualified traffic.

It is common for blog authors to include mildly risqué pictures, so that the post is optimised for users as well as for search engines. Often these images will not to be hyperlinked. This means that if you have advertising on your site, it is more likely those links will be clicked on. I recently started my experiment with Google AdSense, so I'll be able to report back on this soon.

And that's it really - sites that generate revenue from advertising, may well discuss topics loosely related to porn simply to make more money. This is something you could experiment with yourself, but be mindful of the following:

• you do not, under any circumstances, want to alienate your loyal readers
• the topic discussed should be useful and relevant to your loyal readers
• monitor the effects and alter your strategy accordingly
  

If you do that, you should be fine. Please do share your thoughts and experiences in the comments - I know I was hesitant to post about this on a site which is very much my business and livelihood.

This post was inspired by Sam Niccolls who wrote Why Michael Arrington Blogs about Porn on SEOmoz. His post is well worth a read as it provides all of the numbers behind the assumptions.
 

You Can't Outsmart Google - How I Fell Foul of the Giant

I'd love to be able to tell you that I'm a internet guru and that I never make mistakes but, alas, I cannot. Sorry to shatter your illusions.

This week I made a rather silly mistake. In hindsight it was always going to go wrong, but I didn't think about that at the time - I was too caught up in the excitement.

In this post I'm going to show you how to avoid making the same mistake, and also how to fix it should you ever find yourself in a similar situation. The mistake? Falling foul of Google's quality guidelines and having a site removed from their index (almost as quickly as I got it in there in the first place)!

Earlier this week I discussed the benefits of an exact match domain name, and later reported back to declare the experiment a success. I needn't reveal the full story here, but I will so that you can learn from it.

Having a site removed from Google's index!

Today I noticed that the exact match domain I'd been experimenting with wasn't turning up in the search results any longer. I confirmed this with a sneaky little trick... If you want to find out which pages of a site are in Google's index, do a Google search for "site:yoursite.com", for example "site:onlinebusinessconsultant.co.uk". The site definitely wasn't there.

I then dived straight into the Google Webmaster Tools to try and work out what was going on. Google has published some guidelines which, if you build sites, you'd do well to read. In here I found out about something they call 'doorway pages'. I'd never heard of these before, though arguably I should have! BANG goes my guru status. Google defines doorway pages as follows:

Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase. In many cases, doorway pages are written to rank for a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.

Indeed - the exact match domain was definitely one of these. Shame on me. Now it's really important to point out that the problem is not with exact match domains. The problem is when they're used as described above. Google doesn't take kindly to being manipulated.

How to fix a doorway page...

So this is a little premature as I haven't actually fixed the problem yet, but essentially you need to turn the doorway page into one that that provides original content. Once this has been done, you can then request that Google reconsider your site. The request form is here.

There's nothing wrong with using exact match domain names (especially if it is for your core site). But if the point of them is to funnel traffic to your core site, then unless they provide original content, you're effectively creating doorway pages. You'll probably get away with it if you don't overdo it - and trust me, it isn't worth the hassle. Getting back in the index can take some time!
 

How to get on Page 1 of Google - The Benefits of Exact Match Domain Names

In my last post I advised to choose your domain name carefully, stating "unless you have a well-known brand ... it is highly advantageous to purchase a domain name that contains keywords people are searching for". Today, I'll show you how to take that one stage further to virtually guarantee a page 1 (top 10) spot in Google.

I should probably start by saying that this technique is likely best used as a 'complimentary' method. By that I mean you might want to buy a domain that works well for your business (either containing your brand name or keywords your customers will use in a search) as well as additional domains that will help you obtain that, often illusive, page 1 spot.

So here it is, and it is really simple...

Buy an exact match domain name!!!

Whoa there, hold on just a minute. Before you go rushing off to buy that domain, some clarification is required if this is to work...

Firstly an explanation of what is meant by 'exact match'. Google uses three terms to classify search phrases. These are:

• Broad Match. This means that the results will essentially match the words that you're searching for, but there may be some use of plurals, synonyms and misspellings (i.e. variants of your search words).
  
  
• Phrase Match. This means that the words you type will appear together (consecutively) as a phrase. An example would be "hiring an online business consultant". A search for that would ensure all search results contained that exact phrase. To try this for yourself in Google, make sure the phrase appears in quotation marks - this is how you tell Google that you want a phrase match.
  
  
• Exact Match. Really just used by Google AdWords to say that you only want to display your advert when an exact phrase is used in isolation. For example, if I specified that I wanted my advert to appear when the exact phrase "online business consultant" was searched for, it would not display if someone searched for "hiring an online business consultant" (because it contains additional words). Note that if I specified 'phrase match' then it would display.

Now we know what an 'exact match' is, you need to make sure you buy the right domain. The current wisdom is that this will only work for .com .net and .org domains - Google seems to give priority to these.

So there you have it. If you want a top 10 spot in the Google search results, buy an exact match domain name on .com .net or .org (don't waste your time or money on the others).

Final thoughts...

A couple of SEO techniques will improve your chances significantly. Be sure to include your exact phrase in the TITLE and H1 tags. Learn about HTML entities (markup and tags) here.

An update on There's No Smoke Without Fire...

I'm using the above technique myself to see just how well it can work - in all honesty, it's not something I've tried before. This post was written on 1st July 2009, the same day I first uploaded the index.html file to my exact match domain. I will post back here when is is indexed by Google, and will also let you know where it appears in the search results. This update will appear below...

*** Results of the 'exact match' domain name experiment ***

2nd July 2009: Blimey, that was quick. Last night, just 12 hours after uploading the home page, it was indexed by Google. Better still, it ranks number 8 for the exact phrase - firmly on page 1 of the search results. On that basis, I would have to declare the experiment a success. There are however, a couple of caveats (apologies, I'm going to get a little jargony):

• This technique might not be as effective if there is good quality competition. By good quality I mean well-established sites with lots of inbound links and a decent page rank.
  
  
• I don't think it will work if you set up a DNS redirect. The .com and .net domains are owned by someone else (my client bought .org), but these do not appear on page 1 for the exact match search. I believe this is because there seems to be a DNS redirect to their main site (perhaps meaning that Google doesn't have a page to put in their index). One way round this might be to use a Javascript redirect - the type of thing that says 'you will automatically be redirected to the new page in 10 seconds'. Alternatively, try and make the exact match domain pages contain something useful - my client's encourages visitors to sign up to the mailing list in return for a discount code.

You can't really control when Google will index you pages, but there are things that you can do to encourage it. For the sake of being helpful, what I did is listed below. Everything is designed to let Google know you're there to be found.

• Installed Google Analytics
• Verified the site in Google Webmaster Tools and uploaded a sitemap
• Wrote this article containing a link to the site (and used pingoat to get it noticed)
  
• Submitted the URL to Google and Bing (MSN)

So there you have it, if you want to easily make it to page 1 in Google, get yourself an exact match domain name.
 

Setting Up An Online Business - Tips, Tools and Techniques

This is a guest post submitted by cashback.co.uk. Initially their director, Neil Durrant, approached me and asked if I would include a link back to their site from mine - a good technique for off-page search engine optimisation (SEO). I agreed on the basis that it formed part of an article which would be useful to Online Business Consultant readers. That article follows below - at the end I've added a few SEO notes and tips for you too...

Today, as many people are looking to set up their own business, going online has a number of advantages:

• Your market is everyone with an internet connection.
• You can get going cheaply and quickly since you will not need expensive premises
• Your costs and prices will be cheaper

But the key to profitability is thorough preparation.

Here are 10 useful tips to help get your business going and profitable:

1. Write a business plan. Who are you trying to sell to, will they buy online, where are they based, can your product be sold and distributed online, are delivery costs low? If your idea stands up to scrutiny, you might be in business.
   
   [For more information about scrutinising your ideas, see the Business Ideas Litmus Test]
   
   
2. Find the right ISP provider to host your website. There are hundreds of businesses ISPs. Look at issues such as speed, customer service availability, back up services as well as cost and ability to switch.
   
   
3. Register your domain name. Before you establish your company name, do a search to make sure your chosen URL is available and make it memorable. Your ISP may be able to help register your domain name.
   
   [Tip: when choosing a domain name, try to ensure it is strongly related to your brand or contains keywords relevant to your market - which is good for organic SEO]
   
   
4. Set up your own website. You can find DIY site builder solutions on the net. These sites may not be as distinctive as you might like. Otherwise use a web designer but ask for samples first. They will advise on content, customer engagement tools and on navigation to make it for customers to buy from you.
   
   [WordPress is becoming increasingly popular for general website building as well as blogs. You might want to look at the Thesis theme (and why it is considered to be the best available) or have your site set up for you.]
   
   
5. Display the following information:
   
   - Contact details
   - VAT registration if applicable
   - Privacy policy
   - Terms and conditions of sale
   - Exchange/refund policy
   - Up to date prices and stock availability
   
   
6. Set up a virtual shopping cart to allow customers to select items for payment later through the check out page. Again your ISP may have an integrated shopping cart or you can buy specialist shopping cart software.
   
   
7. Set up an account with a provider like PayPal to collect payments. Charges are usually a percentage of each transaction.
   
   
8. Promote your website. Use your URL everywhere... business cards, brochures, letter heads, e-mail signatures, adverts. And make sure you capture customer e-mail addresses to let them know about new products and latest offers and promotions.
   
   
9. Market yourself on search engines. Either by paying for an ad linked to your site on a pay per click basis so you are only paying for visitors or by working with a specialist to optimise your content so that you appear high on search engine rankings against selected key words. Both approaches should be used in the early days.
   
   
10. Finally, test your site just before you go live and regularly. Do all the features work? Is the end to end process slick and straightforward?
    
    [Make sure you site is tested by your intended customer with no instruction from you. Even if everything works, if they don't 'get it' and end up buying from you, all your time, effort and money will go to waste!]
    

You are now well on way to having your online business up and running and giving you the ability to earn money. As with most things in life, you will rapidly learn 80% in the early days and spend the remainder of the life of the business learning the finer points. But it is a rewarding journey.

...

So I promised you a few SEO tips and already mentioned that the reason Neil approached me was not only to promote his site, but also to improve his site's rankings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You see, the fact is, that no matter how well you do your on-page optimisation (those things on your site within your control), inbound links to your site have a much greater impact on your ranking position. However, it's not quite a simple as that...

The quality of inbound links matters greatly. You can actually be penalised by Google for trying to cheat the system with 'black hat' techniques (and your pages will go down the ranks or even disappear from the indexes altogether). The good news is that you get bonus points for:

• Links that appear on relevant sites -
  I.e. if the topic of the page the link appears on is the same as the topic of the page it links to, this is good.
  
  
• Good use of anchor text -
  Anchor text being the words you click on to follow the link. A terrible example of anchor text would be 'click here' - it means nothing. Notice how Neil's researchers used 'earn money' for their anchor text above. It tells Google that the page being linked to is about earning money, i.e. it contains keywords they're trying to rank for. Also, it is much better for the anchor text to appear in context within a paragraph (ideally high up a page) than in a bullet list.
  
  
• Variety -
  It's the spice of life, and Google knows this. If all of your inbound links go to the same page and have the same anchor text, Google will get suspicious - it's all a bit too convenient. Google wants to see things happening naturally. For example, Google doesn't want to think that Neil approached me to try and get cashback.co.uk in the number 1 spot. Google wants the most popular relevant site to appear in the number 1 spot, and that is the site that people are talking about on their blogs and linking to because they want to. Everyone is different, so everyone would have different anchor text. Google rewards these patterns of behaviour. On that note, it's also worth mentioning that providing facilities to make it easy for visitors to promote and link to your site is therefore very wise indeed!
  

Here are a few links to articles and videos on the subject that you may ind useful. I posted all of these on my Twitter account, so you may like to follow theOBC on Twitter.

• Link building guide
• Link building stimulus plan
• How to get awesome links (video)
• Why you shouldn't create a link farm (video)
• More about off-page over optimisation (video)

P.S. I changed the link I was originally given to the cashback.co.uk site when I noticed that they had an affiliate program. If I'm going to include a link to their site, why not a link that I get paid for - this article is all about making money online afterall! I hope you found it useful.