Mobile SEO: What is it and why does it matter?

Posted on August 15, 2013 by keith

Have you take an look through your Google Analytics stats recently and spotted the proportion of visitors using mobiles to access your content?

If you run a typical site, then it’s likely that numbers have been increasing over time. Mobile SEO is all about embracing the way in which consumers are searching and ensuring that your site is best positioned to take advantage of these changes.

Responsive Design

The issue of responsive design has been filling up more and more pages online. For those building a new site from scratch, it seems that a responsive design holds so many of the answers.

The basic idea here is that the site detects the type of device that the visitor is using. Based on that information, a particular version of the website is served.

If someone’s using a small screen, for example, then they may be presented with a smaller layout. Some images may be left out, since the inclusion of them would ruin the design and also increase load times.

It sounds great, so why don’t we all do it?

It’s certainly true that a responsive design has real SEO benefits and Google seem to be keen on this approach, but it may not always be right.

It depends on how much information you’re looking to display and how closely you want the mobile versions to match what’s displayed on the desktop.

You do need to think carefully about load times, in order to get the right approach.

There are alternatives available too. With dynamic serving, for instance, the server does the same job of detecting the device. It then serves up a a page, which may be completely different to the main desktop version.

The main issue here is that dynamic serving does tend to be more complex. From an SEO point of view, however, it can work well.

Both responsive design and dynamic serving mean that you can have a single URL. There’s always the option of having one URL for desktops and another to handle mobile access.

Doesn’t this seem a little old-fashioned? It may well do, but it can still work really well. It’s an area where you do need to be on the ball with your approach to SEO, with some key considerations being:

  • Using the rel=canonical tag correctly, so that you don’t end up with duplicate content issues. In most cases, it’s likely that the desktop version will contain definitive information for your site.
  • Smartphone ranking factors
  • The increased overhead caused by redirects. You may think that redirects are pretty quick, but they are slow on a smartphone. Test it.
  • Is your content accessible to all? If not, it’s likely to rank poorly.

Mobile SEO is all about providing the best possible user experience. That will generally mean having great content, but also making sure that pages load quickly on all devices.

You also need to make sure that there’s no room for confusion and that you aren’t seen to be creating a lot of duplicate information. If you get all of those elements right, then you should be able to keep mobile users happy and also attract more of them.

By Keith Barrett

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Do you listen to Matt Cutts?

Posted on August 12, 2013 by keith

Before launching into this article, it might make more sense to begin by asking: do you know who Matt Cutts is?

He’s the head of Google’s webspam team and is increasingly seen as the public face of Google, when it comes to providing information about SEO. His blog contains notes on what you should be doing, as well as techniques that should be avoided.

As a result, he regularly issues guidance on a broad range of issues. There’s been much talk today, for example, about his recommendation that you should use nofollow when creating links on widgets.

Firstly, it’s probably worth saying that plenty of people who run websites won’t know what nofollow is. If you’re in that particular boat, then you may well be running to Google right now to find out what nofollow is and why it’s important to you.

For those who already have an understanding of the issue, should there be a rush to go out and do as Matt says? If he’s a representative of Google and he’s issuing instructions, then surely you should follow suit?

It seems to me that Google are in a bit of a muddle that’s largely of their own making. There would be no need, after all, to use nofollow at, if it weren’t for the fact that the search engine’s algorithm is so dependent on following and evaluating links. The latter part of that equation, some might well argue, doesn’t seem to be working particularly well.

If Google did a great job of evaluating links, then they might not need so much help from others to point out whether link juice should be passed. Indeed, the importance of links has caused a multitude of secondary issues, including the expansion of an entire industry of people selling links.

You’ll increasingly see talk of SEO companies using “white hat” techniques. There was a time when this largely meant that providers would avoid excessively stuffing a page with keywords, or looking to provide content consisting of black text on a black background.

Today, some would suggest that it’s increasingly hard to define “white hat” techniques. As the goal posts have been moved over the years, some techniques that were acceptable 5 years ago will now lead to penalties.

So how much notice should you take of what Matt has to say? There clearly has to be a balance here, particularly since you primarily operate a website for the benefit of your business.

Although Google may well have an important part to play, in terms of providing a proportion of visitors, how much time should you spend making changes to ensure that you are in line with the latest guidelines that are issued by the search engine giant?

The primary concern for your business is likely to be creating content, information and services that appeal to your customers. You’ll want to provide a website that meets their needs.

If you’re successful in doing that, then it seems reasonable to imagine that you should attract attention and rank well within the search engine results. Marking widget links as nofollow? That’s unlikely to be a great use of your time.

Of course, you may decide to implement every single change that Google recommend. That might be a decision that you’re happy with, but there always needs to be an appreciation that there’s a resource overhead associated with taking that route.

Read what Matt Cutts has to say, but make your own decisions on what will really benefit your business.

by Keith Barrett

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Have you been hit by a manual penalty?

Posted on August 9, 2013 by admin

It sometimes feels a little too easy to associate any loss of positioning within Google with the idea that a site has been hit by a penalty. Although this is probably the actual cause in many cases, it’s often easy to place blame in the wrong area.

If you’ve been busily submitting reconsideration requests and not getting much joy, then you need to think about your approach. What can a reconsideration request be used for and why might it not be working for you?

Automated versus manual penalties

The first thing to say is that there’s has been some suspicion that you should always be aware of a penalty, since there will be a notice within your Google Webmaster Tools account. Unfortunately, this simply isn’t always the case. Recent changes do ensure that you will receive notifications of manual penalties, but that means that you may still be unaware of any automated demotions.

Indeed, the term penalty can, in some instances, be rather unhelpful. Those who have lost positioning as a result of the Penguin updates, for example, may feel that they’ve been hit by a penalty. Looking at the outcomes, however, it may be more accurate to suggest that algorithm updates have simply led to a loss of positioning. That’s significant, but it’s also a subtle difference.

Why does any of this matter? Most people aren’t really interested in the semantics here, but there is a clear interest in understanding why a loss of positioning has occurred. Without that information, it’s almost impossible to see how a recovery can be achieved.

If you really have been hit by a manual penalty, then the recovery process may seem rather obvious. In fact, it’s likely that you were already aware of the actions that caused the problems.

It’s the automated penalties and the losses of positioning as a result of algorithm problems that can be more difficult to escape from.

Over-optimisation penalties

If you have been hit by an over-optimisation penalty (including as a result of Panda updates) then that may be obvious to you. You’ll frequently find that a site drops from page one down to a position where it has no chance of attracting visitors.

You may even discover that you can’t find the relevant page within the first 10 or 20 pages of search engine results.

Conclusions

Manual penalties are relatively rare. In most cases, it’s more likely that you will have been hit by an automated penalty or demotion of some sort.

This can be seen as being something of a shame, largely because those automated issues are far more difficult to escape from.

Before assuming that you are on the receiving end of a manual penalty, it’s important that you should carry out all relevant checks. Is that really the case? Could it be that you are actually facing another issues?

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Carrying out a full SEO audit

Posted on August 9, 2013 by admin

There are plenty of companies offering SEO audit services, particularly since so many websites have been hit by various Google algorithm updates.

Aims

The key objective of any SEO audit should be to identify any existing problems with the search engine optimisation of a site. If a site has been hit by a penalty, then a complete online marketing audit should also enable the causes of such a penalty to be identified.

Key Elements

The main elements of the SEO process can be broken down, with each being reviewed in turn. The most important aspects are as follows:

  • Keyword identification
  • On-site optimisation elements
  • The link profile
  • The way the site is viewed by the main search engines
  • Social media interaction

Each of these is considered in turn in the remainder of this post.

Keyword identification

Any SEO project must start with the correct identification of target keywords. As a result, ot makes sense to start an SEO audit by considering the target keywords that are being used.

This may be something that’s easy to do, if such targets are listed within the meta keywords entry. Indeed, it may be that all of the individual elements of the site reflect the list of target keywords.

It’s not always as simple as might be imagined. It may require a quick conversation with a client, to confirm the intentions.

Having discussed the target keywords, it makes sense to look at:

  • The number of searches being conducted using those phrases
  • The level of competition being faced.

Within the opening paragraphs of the SEO audit document, there should be a suitable discussion of the keyword targeting. Recommendations could then be made, with an explanation of why particular keywords have been selected.

On-site optimisation elements

Having considered the target keywords, it’s time to start looking at the content, tags and stucture of the site.

Google Webmaster Tools

Is there a Google Webmaster Tools account in place? If not, there probably should be. Registering for an account and getting the authorisation in place won’t take long and it’s clearly time that’s well spent.

With the Webmaster Tools login, pay particular attention to crawl stats and 404 errors. This may well point to problems with the site structure that can be corrected.

Google Analytics

A quick check of the Google Analytics installation is also worthwhile. If it’s appropriate, check that conversion tracking is in place too.

Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is used to restrict access to the site by search engine crawlers. You need to make sure that you are restricting access in the right manner. Are you, for instance, inadvertently stopping the search engines from seeing pages that you would actually like to see included within the index?

Sitemaps

If navigation is in place correctly on a site, then a sitemap should be seen as little more than a backup. You may choose to place HTML and XML sitemaps on the site.

As far as an XML sitemap is concerned, you obviously need to check that it has been constructed correctly. Has it also been submitted via the Google Webmaster Tools account?

You also need to be sure that the sitemap is comprehensive. Check that every single page is included. By the same token, every page that appears within the sitemap file should also be accessible via the standard site navigation. Check that this is actually the case.

Navigation checks

How easy is it to navigate around the site? If you’re using some sort of JavaScript navigation, for instance, then have you considered that some website visitors will undoubtedly have JavaScript disabled within their browsers.

Make sure that you have allowed for such issues by ensuring that alternative navigation is provided for those who may not be able to access your appealing solution.

Indexing check

You can use Google’s site: command to check that the website is being indexed correctly. When doing so, you should largely be checking for two main elements:

  • Is every page being included within the index? If not, why not? This may mean making further changes to the robots.txt file, site navigation and the sitemap.
  • Is duplicate content being indexed? If so, this is something that could cause problems and that needs to be corrected.

Keyword-rich URLs

If you’re looking to get improved search engine positioning, then consideration needs to be given to the URLs. As an example:

http://www.example.com/seo-audit/

looks rather better than:

http://www.example.com/articles/39/aug2013/44562.html

The first example is also more likely to produce better search engine positioning. You can use rewrites to correct this problem and will also find that many pieces of software (including WordPress) have specific plugins that can assist.

Page Titles

Do your page titles contain your target keywords. Together with the URL, the title provides a critical element that can be used to send signals to the search engines. It’s often suggested that the title should be less than 70 characters, although there has been some evidence to suggest that longer page titles are also helping to produce some impressive results.

You do need to be wary of over-optimising too and it’s a good idea to avoid repetition.

Meta Keywords

Although the main search engines ignore the meta keywords entries, it’s worth including these for completeness. They also offer a reference, when writing titles and descriptions.

Meta Description

Although the meta description entry isn’t currently used to improve search engine positioning, the fact that this entry does appear within the search engine results pages.

This means that it can be used to encourage search engine users to click on the listing. That’s an SEO advantage that is so often overlooked.

Content

There are numerous articles online suggesting that you should concentrate on writing content that contains the write keyword density. That’s probably less of a priority than seeking to write informative, exclusive and well-researched pieces.

Examine the use of grammar and spelling too. Websites that contain numerous spelling errors are unlikely to be associated with quality. They may not appeal to visitors, which can lead to some poor metrics and a lack of positioning as a result.

Image ALT tags

The main search engines can’t read images, so it’s important that care is taken when associating text with images. This can be achieved with IMG ALT tags, although over-stuffing them with keywords will do you few favours.

The link profile

The existing link profile of a site will go a long way to explaining whether that site is currently under penalty. With that in mind, you should look out for potential warning signals, including:

  • Any warnings within Google Webmaster Tools
  • A high proportion of links from poor quality websites
  • A lack of anchor text variation

Search engine visibility

How is the site currently being ranked? Does it seem to be doing worse than would be expected?

You may have enough information to confirm that there’s been a loss of positioning over time. Look at whether particular pages have been hit, or whether it looks like there is a site-wide problem.

Social media interaction

There are undoubted advantages to using social media as part of a wider SEO campaign. What you need to consider is whether accounts are in place, whether they are linked to the site and whether they are regularly updated.

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Reputation Management Explained

Posted on January 7, 2013 by admin

The concept of online reputation management has gained an increased profile during the past couple of years. In fact, some SEO specialists are concentrating solely on this area.

With an ever increasing amount of business being conducted online, the importance of having a strong, positive online presence is clear. To a certain extent, reputation management comes into its own when there are other business failings.

Dealing with negative reviews

An obvious situation where assistance may be needed is in the case of a business that has received a number of negative reviews. When potential customers search for your business name, they may spot these reviews, at the same time as they see your own site.

Indeed, as part of the research process, it’s to be expected that some Internet users will simply search for a review, before committing to purchase.

So what sort of approach should you be taking? Here are some simple steps:

1. Correct the problems

This is something that is absolutely critical. There may be a tendency to worry about the fact that a set of poor reviews may have a negative impact on your income levels. Of more importance should be the realisation that something is going wrong.

If customers are deciding to vent their feelings in this manner, then that’s a pretty good indication of the fact that your products, or service levels, aren’t up to scratch.

If you fail to correct the underlying problem, then your business will never be as successful as it should be. You’ll also soon discover that more positive reviews will be added, which will limit the progress of any reputation management campaign.

2. Identify incorrect, or malicious, reviews

There will be occasions when you’ll receive reviews that are factually incorrect.

In these cases, be prepared to approach Review Websites with full details of your dealings with specific customers. You should ask for such reviews to be removed.

You may also discover that competitors are sometimes keen to undermine your business by posing as unhappy former customers. Once again, you’ll find that the best policy is to be armed with evidence and to request that such reviews are removed.

It is worth noting that some Review Sites aren’t quick to respond to such issues and may even refuse to take action. In many cases, it is up to you to prove that you are correct.

3. Control the search engine results

Although many people see this as being the first step on the ladder, it should actually probably be the last.

If the search results are dominated by negative news and views, then you may need to think about reclaiming the search space for yourself.

It’s often easiest to do this using related, official sources of information. Your Facebook page, LinkedIn page and Twitter feed are 3 examples of such sources of information.

Playing by the rules

Some companies are tempted to take matters into their own hands. We’ve seen cases of reputation management involving the distribution of false, positive reviews.

Although it’s perfectly legitimate to issue positive Press Releases and articles, creating reviews of this kind is really taking things to a new level.

Indeed, depending upon you location, such an approach may actually be illegal.

Understand the actions that are available to you and play by the rules. You’ll soon have things back on track.

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Checking out the competition

Posted on January 7, 2013 by admin

In most SEO campaigns, it’s likely that you’ll have some sort of mixture of objectives. You may have identified some “quick wins” – keywords where you think that progress can be made quickly.

These probably (although not always) will be terms that don’t generate huge amounts of traffic. You may feel that there is a lack of competition, however, which should ensure that you can gain positioning pretty quickly.

It’s then likely that you’ll have a set of keywords (or search terms) that represent medium and long-term targets. Over time, these are the phrases that you’re expecting to deliver visitors and resulting sales.

You may, however, be pretty realistic about this latter group of keywords. You’re probably competing against established sites and it’s going to take you that bit longer to really get anywhere.

The key to coming up with your strategy is obviously to be able to identify levels of competition at the outset. If you get this stage wrong, then you’re going to be facing some real problems. There is, however, a certain art to measuring levels of competition.

The use of the word art clearly suggests that we’re not talking about an exact science, although there are various tools that we can use to take a closer look at the search landscape. In effect, we’ll be looking to build up a complete picture by using a variety of these tools.

So where should we begin?

The search engine results

It’s never a bad idea to start by searching Google (and the other main search engines) using your target keywords. You’ll soon start to get some idea of the level of competition that you’re facing.

There’s a strong chance that you’ll already recognise the presence of many of your rivals within the listings.

Helpfully, Google also allows you to see the number of searches that have been returned. Some people would suggest that the higher the number, the greater the level of competition. Is this strictly true?

It’s not a measure that we actively choose to use. Instead, it’s possible to use the allintitle modifier, to take a closer look at the sites where the keyword has been used within page titles. Given the SEO advantages offered by the TITLE tag, this is a pretty good way of seeing who is really working on a specific term.

It’s also worth looking at the strengths of the sites that are ranking. You may choose to review PageRank, as assigned to each site, or to use a measure of authority. In fact, you’ll probably want to do both.

If the listings are dominated by sites that have a high degree of authority, then it’s fair to assume that they’ll be harder to shift.

Checking backlinks

Should you check the backlinks of the sites that are ranking well? That’s always a good idea and will help you to get a view of how some of your competitors are making progress.

Are they building links in an active manner? Are they relying on the fact that they have plenty of fresh, interesting content?

You’ll also discover some link building opportunities here. You may set out to replicate some of the links that have been built by others. You may, for instance, be able to find some guest blogging opportunities, or some reputable directories.

Active SEO behaviour

Have the sites concerned been making use of professional SEO services? In many cases, the SEO company may insert a link on the client site. In some situations, it may be able to identify what’s going on from the link profile.

If the majority of the sites on the first page of the search engine results are using SEO experts, then it seems fair to assume that this will make your task more difficult.

Conclusions

There are a number of signals that you can use in order to identify how competitive a particular keyword really is. Over time, you’ll find that it becomes second nature and that you’re able to make relatively quick decisions.

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Some Common SEO Questions & Answers

Posted on January 4, 2013 by admin

Part of our role is to stay up to date with the latest search engine changes. Since the SEO scene changes pretty frequently, this is no small task!

As we read information provided from various official sources, industry forums and blogs, we often see the same questions cropping up in a variety of different places. Here are some of the more common questions that arise, together with some definite answers.

Q: How can I find out if a so-called SEO expert is really any good?

A: This is a question that appears pretty frequently and we would have to say that the best answer is really to do your research. The unfortunate reality is that anyone can put a website live and claim to be an expert.

A great way to find out if an SEO consultant is any good is obviously to have a conversation with them, prior to committing to anything. We generally find that those who know plenty about SEO are usually happy to show off their level of knowledge!

Q: Should I outsource the SEO function to an overseas provider?

A: The actual location of a provider is likely to be considerably less important than the type of service that they provide. Communicating effectively, however, could become something of an issue.

You’ll probably want to ensure, at the most basic level, that you’re able to speak with someone who is knowledgeable and fluent in English (or your own, chosen language). But you’ll also want to be sure that you can get hold of them quickly, in case of issues.

We wouldn’t suggest avoiding overseas providers. It’s really just a case of selecting carefully.

Q: How much should SEO costs?

A: This is an obvious question and yet one that is extremely difficult to answer. The costs associated with SEO will vary from one project to the next. This is because there are a number of factors that have an impact on the costs involved, such as:

  • The market being targeted
  • Levels of competition being faced
  • The amount of on-site work that is required
  • The amount of new content that may be needed

In general terms, it’s clearly advisable to shop around for a few quotes. If something seems too good to be true, however, then it probably is.

Q: Can SEO be used to target a local area?

A: Yes, absolutely. In fact, we would say that this is actually an extremely effective approach to SEO. There’s a lot to be said for growing a business locally and you may actually be able to get faster results, due to the lack of competition involved.

Q: I need to get great results within a matter of weeks. Is this possible?

A: Almost certainly not. Although some providers may promise quick results, the reality is that this can only usually be achieved by:

  • Targeting keywords that will never generate real leads for your business
  • Using techniques that may produce short-term results, but are likely to lead to your site being removed from the search engine results, once the techniques have been identified

Fortunately, most UK providers are keen to produce sustainable SEO results. You just need to be wary of those who take a different approach.

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Basic Website Monitoring

Posted on January 3, 2013 by admin

Even those who don’t have a specific budget for SEO are able to carry out some simple tasks to produce results. At the most basic level, it’s clear that there are a number of tools that will enable you to monitor performance levels.

Uptime Monitoring

When customers arrive at your site, what are they presented with? The importance of selecting a reputable hosting company is easily overlooked and you may be relying on stats that suggest that your site is available 99% of the time.

But how do you really know? It’s vital that you keep an eye on the uptime of your site. The reality, however, is that you can’t be checking it every minute of the day. There are, however, a number of automated systems that can help.

You can use software to constantly check the site and to notify you when there’s a problem. A number of companies offer a free trial (Periscope is one such example).

Analytics

How do visitors reach your site and what do they do once they are there? These are two basic questions that you’ll want to answer.

Fortunately, a good quality Analytics package will allow you to do so and a lot more besides. So which package should you opt for?

Google Analytics is the software of choice for many. It’s comprehensive and is also free to use, making it an obvious choice. Installation is fairly easy too.

Google Webmaster Tools

If you’re relying on organic search engine traffic, then it makes a lot of sense to confirm that all is well with your site, at least as far as Google is concerned.

The Webmaster Tools feature is easy to use – it’s particularly useful for identifying specific problems with the site, such as broken links that may lead to crawl errors.

The above 3 solutions will ensure that you have some level of website monitoring in place. The associated cost is minimal, but there’s plenty for you to gain.

Is there more that you could do? You’ll certainly find that there are numerous packages on the market – it’s really a question of looking at how much you’re willing to invest.

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UK SEO In 2013

Posted on January 2, 2013 by admin

The start of a new year clearly brings numerous opportunities, particularly in the world of business. For those operating online, this may be a time to look again at the time, effort and money that is being associated with the SEO process.

The role of Google

Google’s dominance of the UK search engine scene continues and shows few signs of diminishing. Although Microsoft have invested heavily in producing a higher profile for their Bing search engine, the reality is that such investment has made little more than a dent in Google’s position.

Most Brits turn to Google when they want to find something online and we may expect this to continue. For the time being, at least, it’s the search engine that will be at the centre of most SEO efforts.

Are there signs that things may be about to change? Authorities in the US and Europe have certainly been looking closely at Google’s business model and some hope that enforced changes may lead to a broadening of the search engine market.

But all of this has to be placed within the background of the onward progress of the search giant. More and more users are turning to Gmail and using the mobile search offering, thanks in no small part to the increasing sales of Android smartphones and tablets.

Mobile search

The rise of mobile search cannot be under-estimated. Consumers increasingly expect to find information on the go and this is a trend that is set to continue. There must, at the very least, be some consideration given to how a site looks within mobile browsers.

Social media is growing up

But what about social media networks? These received a lot of attention in 2012, with many people assuming that they represented the future of internet marketing. During the course of the year, however, there can be no doubt that the landscape has changed.

Twitter is now firmly in view as a public broadcast medium. While some users imagined that they were only Tweeting friends about harmless pieces of gossip, they soon found that they were entering into the public limelight. Court cases followed and the innocence of Twitter has been removed.

Facebook also appears to have entered the world of controversy. As the brand has grown, users have become more concerned about a range of issues surrounding privacy and the ownership of information.

What does all of this mean for businesses? It certainly means that social media networks need to be treated with a degree of caution. It was once tempting to think that they represented harmless fun, but it’s clear that an appropriate strategy is needed for managing engagement.

They will still have a place at the heart of many SEO campaigns, but they will not be appropriate for all.

Looking ahead

In essence, the primary elements of the SEO environment can be seen as being unchanged. Building a successful business is all about providing an excellent level of service to customers. SEO results tend to stem directly from such activity.

2013 will see many passing SEO fads that hold the promise of immediate links. In reality, however, success will be built on great websites, original content, old-fashioned networking and building a brand.

Are you set for success?

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A Merry Christmas

Posted on December 21, 2012 by keith

We’d like to wish all of our clients, suppliers, friends and colleagues a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Search South are looking forward to 2013, when we will be striving to provide quality SEO, Adwords management and online marketing services to all of our clients.

Author: Keith Barrett

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