SEO Blog

Impact Media would like to wish everyone a happy New Year and we hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break.

At Impact Media we are looking forward to an exciting and prosperous new year and are working hard to ensure all of our clients experience the same success.

If one of your New Years resolutions is to increase your online visibility then why not get in touch to see what we can do for your business?

For those who are interested in increasing their web presence, Squidoo offers an interesting opportunity. If you haven’t visited Squidoo, you might not understand what it is. Squidoo is a sort of cross between MySpace and Wikipedia. It’s a space where you can promote yourself, your company, and your ideas or simply write a page about any topic that you’re passionate about.

Lenses

Each page is called a Lens. Lenses are easy to create, and there is a Squidoo Wizard to help you do this. You can create a good Squidoo lens with about 30 uninterrupted minutes. Of course, keeping it up to date and fresh, will take more of a time commitment. Google seems to have a very positive attitude towards Squidoo lenses when it comes to SEO.

SEO and Squidoo

If you wish to use Squidoo for SEO purposes, then make a relevant keyword rich lens on Squidoo related either directly to your business or to an area of interest within your business.

But how do you get Google to power up the SEO value of your Squidoo page? This is simple and relies on our old friend the ever-important backlink. If you want your Squidoo page to assist with increasing your web presence, you need to ensure that people make backlinks using keyword rich anchor text from their site to your Squidoo lens. This is the best way to get a Squidoo lens indexed on Google. This helps Google to view your Squidoo page as relevant. The more quality backlinks to your Squidoo lens, the more popularity votes your Squidoo page gets, and the more relevant Google assesses your lens.

Squidoo Tags

Many people are unaware of the power of the tags on Squidoo. Experts debate their value. But the tags can make all of the difference between having your lens read and indexed by Google and seeing it end up discarded and lost in cyberspace. Adding keyword tags to your Squidoo lens will help Google in the indexing process and will help your Squidoo lens become searchable from the Squidoo index.

Traffic

If you’re going to make Squidoo work for you, you’ll want to get traffic to it. If you use backlinks and tags, that’s the first step, but there are other things. By giving something away of value on your Squidoo, you’ll likely increase your inbound traffic and potentially the quality backlinks that you need. So, if you’re able to write articles, or an entire e-Book on something of interest to lots of people, you’ll conceivably gain considerable traffic.

Squidoo for You?

If you’re interested in improving your web presence through SEO then Squidoo can help. It’s important to remember that Squidoo is just one piece of the entire SEO puzzle and that a blended approach to Search Engine Optimisation is still the most successful method of gaining the results that you seek.

At Impact Media, we can help you find your way through the social media maze with our social media marketing services. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.

On the 12th day of Xmas…

Links are the backbone of any good search engine marketing strategy and below are 12 ways you can get quality inward one way links to your website:

1. Directories - submit your website to quality directories such as Yahoo, BOTW and DMOZ. Being in these directories can not only get you links from very credible places but also generate traffic and also other links.
2. Forums - contribute to forums in your niche and use your website link in your signature as you will gain links and also be seen as a contributor to your industry.
3. Articles - create them specific to your niche and submit them to places like Ezine articles as people will pick them up and use them on their websites.
4. Press Releases - Submit these online to places like PRWeb as you can find you get local or national media coverage and have your press release published anywhere on the web.
5. Social Bookmarking - If you have a really good article or piece of content that you have posted to your website then be sure to ask associates to review it and tag it through places such as Digg and StumbleUpon as this can go viral very quickly.
6. Wikipedia - Add your website or product only if it is credible and suitable as if you attempt to spam this resource you will get banned straight away and have your entry removed.
7. Answer Questions - Use Yahoo Answers and Google Groups to answer questions and link to relevant resources, not always yours but if its relevant then why not.
8. Hub Pages - Set up pages for your products or service on social hub sites like Squidoo and Hub Pages and use these to link through to your website.
9. Start a Blog - Publish great content regularly on your own blog and people will naturally link to it
10. Flash games - develop a fun game that can be distributed and that is specific to your industry if its good and more importantly fun people will link to it.
11. Tools - offer free tools or services that people will want to link to to add value to their visitors, this will naturally attract links.
12. Videos - Publish informative videos on your website that will be of benefit to people in your industry.

Above is only a few ways to develop you inward links but you can get as creative as you need to.

On the 11th Day of Christmas, we bring you 11 AdWords Tips:

1. Invest time in researching keywords
2. Set-up conversion tracking from the outset
3. Move to a standard campaign from starter as soon as possible
4. Create separate campaigns if advertising on the Content Network
5. Ensure you understand the difference in the match types and use as appropriate
6. Use negative keywords
7. Test ad copy to see which is most effective
8. Ensure your landing pages are optimised for your keywords and ad copy
9. Improve your quality score by having a fast and reliable web host
10. Use the search query report regularly and often, particularly if using broad match
11. Use AdWords Editor to make life easier!

On the 10th day of Christmas, Impact Media brought to you…10 reasons why you may be banned from Google.

Toady we list ten common reasons why your site may have been banned or penalised by Google.  If you have suddenly disappeared of the face of the earth, you may find the reason below:

1. Robots.txt File
   A good place to start is your Robots.txt file. It may be possible that you have the wrong coding in place and this could be stopping Google from crawling your site. Ensure that you have the correct parameters set up. If you have set up a rule that is aimed at blocking Google from crawling a certain part of the site, be sure you haven’t blocked off the whole site.
2. Meta Tags
   Incorrectly coded Meta Tags can also stop Google from crawling your site. If you have a tag that reads: <meta name=”ROBOTS” content=”NOINDEX”> then Google will be sent away as soon as it gets to your site.
3. Cloaking
   If your Web Server is set up to return totally different content to Googlebot compared to the content your visitors see when they come to your site, this is classed as Cloaking and you’re more than likely to get a permanent ban from Google. Cloaking is seen as the tactic of trying to cheat your way to better rankings, Google don’t like this and, if found, you will be penalised.
4. Duplicate Websites
   A common practice or mistake that can be made is the use of multiple sites under different versions of the same Domain. People who are looking to secure rankings for .com, .co.uk and .net domains can fall into the trap of creating duplicate sites. This can result is getting one or all of these site penalised which could lead to losing all rankings instead of cornering the market. If you wish to cover all your bases by using multiple Domains, set up 301 re-directs to the main site.
5. Duplicate Content
   It’s also a common mistake to fill a site with the same content across a number of pages. This will again be classed as duplicate content. If Google catches onto this, you could find yourself dropped into the middle of nowhere. Make sure each page has its own individual content.
6. Hidden Text
   You should have nothing to hide. So don’t. Hidden text or text that is in the same colour as the back ground will backfire. This practice ironically is carried out so the search engines can see the hidden text but visitors to the site can’t. Usually the text is key terms the site is looking to gain rankings for yet if Google sees that you are trying to hide something from the visitor it will class this as spam and penalise your site accordingly.
7. Hidden Links
   This is much the same as hidden text. If you hide links you’re going to get punished.
8. Keyword Stuffing
   If you’re optimising your site you’re going to be looking to add important key terms to the page. If you over do it, you could find Google turning against you. Keyword stuffing not only stops your site from making any sense it’s also seen as spam. Your web page should always read naturally instead of a constant repetition of the same terms over and over again. Write for your visitors not the search engines and you won’t go wrong.
9. Page Swapping
   If you swap your well ranked page for something totally different, expect to see a reaction. Although this won’t get you banned in the true sense of the word, you will see a dramatic drop. Basically if your page or site is no longer relevant to the terms you have worked hard to gain rankings for, you won’t be appearing for them.
10. Linking to the wrong kind of sites
    Linking to other sites is a good thing but be careful who you’re actually linking to. Get caught up in the wrong company and you could find yourself disappearing. Linking to sites that aren’t exactly carrying out ethical practices will work against you. Adult and Gambling sites are an example of the types of sites to avoid. Don’t link to sites that spam. Avoid Link Farms. Only link to sites that are relevant and sites that would add value to the content of your site.

On the 9th day of Xmas…

On-page search engine optimisation is very important and below are 9 tips to help ensure you get the most from it:

1. Page Titles - Need to be unique, relevant, individual per page and most importantly contain your main keywords and these shout what your page is about so get them right.
2. META Descriptions - should be unique per page, include your keywords and be good sales copy as this will be displayed more often than not in the search results and is key to getting a searcher to click on your entry.
3. Content - This must be unique, good quality and contain your main keywords but do not spam it to the extent where the copy does not read properly as it will never convert.
4. Internal Linking - use keywords in the links you use to link the pages of your website together as this will increase the value of the link and the perceived relevance of the page you are linked to.
5. Headers - Make proper use of your headers starting with your prime title as a H1 and work down as this will be used to decide which phrases are most important on your page.
6. Alt Tags - Primarily used by screen readers to interpret an image to a visually impaired person, the search engines also use these to find out what the picture is about, so be sure to use your keywords where appropriate.
7. Sitemap - ensure you have a sitemap and that it is linked off of your homepage as this will ensure all of your websites pages get found and crawled.
8. Validate - go to the W3C website and ensure that your website validates. If it does it will be easier to crawl and the robots are less likely to get stuck on your site and give up.
9. Get a Blog - Blogs are fantastic as the search engines love fresh unique content and Blogs ensure they get it. Also its a great way of becoming a source of knowledge for your industry and will see you gaining more links and business.

These are 9 simple tips that if followed will see you gaining search rankings faster than you can polish of that turkey.

On the 8th Day of Christmas, Impact Media share 8 blogging resources:

1. Wordpress. Open-source blogging software. A multitude of uses
2. Free WordPress Video Theme, courtesy of Impact Media
3. BlogPulse. Find out what’s hot in the blogosphere
4. Backtype. Find, follow and share comments
5. BloggerDesign. Great tips on blog design and usability
6. Performancing Metrics. Blog stats, in real time
7. ProBlogger. Darren Rouse provides ‘sledgeloads‘ of tips and advice
8. BlogCatalog. A ’social blogger community’, i.e. blog directory with interaction between bloggers

On the 7th Day of Christmas, Impact Media gave me 7 copywriting tips:

1. Scanability
Website visitors are fickle, and if they can’t find the information they want on your website, they will move on. Make sure that when people arrive at your site they can scan the page and understand your content straight away.

2. Write for the Web
Don’t go overboard with your website copy. By all means write your text with search engines in mind, but always remember its people who read your website and too much text means confusion.

3. Use Headings

Not only will Heading tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) break up your bulky text to make the page more readable, it will also help the search engines determine the subject of the page. Pick your headings with care and be sure to place your most keywords within them, else they are wasted.

4. Use Bullet Points

Using bullet points will help break your content into small pieces which will allow your visitors to scan the page easier.

5. Keywords Usage

Do not over use keywords in your content. It will be very tempting to stuff your keywords into the page to ensure you are ranked for it, search engines hate that, and your visitors won’t thank you for it either.

6. Anchor Text

Add keywords to your internal links to give credibility to the content. Avoid generic phrase such as ‘click here’.

7. Call to actions

Don’t just end your content with a statement, finish with a Call to Action. Determine what your want your visitors to do and write your whole copy with that in mind. finish with a link or clear direction to the next step of the process.

On the 6th day of Xmas….

Video on the web is becoming an essential part of the marketing mix and below are a 6 ways you can use video to promote your business online:

1. Video testimonials - from your clients saying how good you are and how you have helped their business do better. These work very well at getting you credibility and trust online.
2. Video reviews - for products you sell so people can really get to grips with what they are buying. Statistics state that people are more likely to buy when the sales message is supported by video.
3. Tips and help videos - these work very well and getting you ranked for long tail terms and enable you to show your knowledge online and this leads to further business and brand awareness within your niche.
4. Video introductions - to services on your website so you can guide them through the page and service being offered to save them reading it. Works well for people in a hurry and also those who dislike reading large amounts of text.
5. Walk rounds and tours - good for hotels, car dealerships and estate agents as people can really get a feel for what they are looking at and this also will stop wasted time as people wont bother doing a real tour if they don’t like the look of the video tour.
6. Screen capture processes - such as using applications and software to show how easy it is to use and this can also be used for the instructional guides that accompany it.

These are just a few ways you can promote your business online but all will do wonders for your online visibility.

Google have just announced the release of version 7 of AdWords Editor.

Having just upgraded and followed the instructions, as always, to back up before upgrading, I was dismayed to find that when I went to restore the account snapshot, my local unposted changes weren’t there.

In addition to this, the proposed changes just had all of the existing campaigns in the AdWords account I was working on flagged as deleted.

There is a known issue that Google have given details of here:

Upgrading to version 7.0 known issues. Sounds easy enough but unfortunately this didn’t work for me.

Normally, I always ensure that I’ve uploaded local changes first but given that the backup option is documented as an appropriate method, I assumed I would be safe to do so. I hope this post saves you from experiencing the same problem.