Posts Tagged "Search Engine Optimisation"

If you are looking around for a search engine optimisation company to carry out some SEO work on your website, then make sure you choose the right colour hat. There are a large number of companies that adopt a fast and unethical approach to SEO, known as black hat SEO, while there are a smaller number or companies that implement ethical SEO work, known as white hat SEO. The key to choosing the right colour, which is obviously the white, is as follows…

Before you even think of taking on a search engine optimisation company, the first thing is to shop around and see what is out on the market. The same principles would apply if you were to buy a new computer. You would look at a few models, prices and what each model has to offer. If an SEO company was to offer a service that would guarantee you top ranks, there is a very good chance they are wearing a black hat. No SEO company can guarantee top ranks since they have no direct control over the search engines and their ranking algorithms. They can however mention that top ranks are highly achievable due to their previous success with other clients.

Be sure to look at a companies’ portfolio page (if they have one on their website or simply ask them) and carry out some research on their clients. This can be done by looking at the client’s website performance within the search engines for the selected keywords they have been optimised for. Another good idea would be to write a courtesy email to the client asking for a reference on the SEO company they have used to optimise their website.

The most important giveaway on a black hat SEO company is the way they would describe their services. If a company cannot go into detail on how they carry out their work (meaning they are very vague), and this involves justifying each step of their work, then it would be best to avoid their services. A proper SEO firm will be more than happy to explain their services in detail and justify their reasons for using such techniques. If you cannot quiet understand the techniques they use then be sure to do some research on the internet and read SEO articles that explain each technique. If you find that their work fits along the lines of your research and that it is all ethical, then they are a company you should put on your list.

A last point to mention, a company should stress the phrase ‘patience is the key to success with SEO’. If a company claims that they can achieve results very fast, then it is time to start running. In theory, SEO that is carried out correctly on a website will take time until the results start to show (most cases 3 to 6 months but could be longer).

Would you like to know what could happen to your website if you hire a black hat SEO company, regardless of how big or small your website is in terms of brand recognition? An example would be the story of the BMW German website. They hired a black hat SEO firm to carry out some work on their website and that resulted in their site being banned from the Google ranks. So it is best to do your research on SEO by reading articles such as this one and question a companies approach on search engine optimisation. This will ensure that you have selected the clean white hat and that your website will not be tarnished from the black.

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Starting a search engine optimisation business from scratch can be an extremely overwhelming and daunting task, especially if it is your first time. Establishing contacts and connections can also be extremely time consuming if you have no prior marketing and sales knowledge.

Below is a useful guide to help you get your first clients and to get your SEO / SEM business off the ground. Before I begin, please keep in mind that “word-of-mouth” is king, get the word out, talk and mention your business to whomever, whenever and wherever. Remember, the more exposure you offer your business, the more chances you will have landing that first deal.

Search engine optimisation marketing and offline selling tips:
1. Target your market and know your customers, i.e. do some background research. It helps to initially concentrate on one industry, e.g. travel websites, and know the terms, your clients, their line of work and their competition.
2. Localise yourself, concentrate on a local area. Try not to tackle too much at first, focus and concentrate on local businesses and gain their trust. Remember “you are a local” and share similarities.
3. Meet with them, form a partnership and more personal relationships.
4. Assess your advertising options (depending on your budget), consider using the following advertising tools:

a. Local newspapers – place a catchy add.

b. T-shirts – they create great advertising on the street or wherever you go. Also, choose an eye catching slogan.

c. Business cards – choose an appealing and aesthetically pleasing design, trust me professionalism and great design go a long way.

d. Billboard and brochure advertising for those that have the financial means.

e. Taxi advertising: Taxis can be seen all over town by motorists, many of who may happen to be company executives looking to increase their online sales.

f. Radio is also not a bad way of reaching out to people, however this can be costly.
5. Join your local chamber of commerce, meet business people and discuss your SEO business. Offer them a FREE brief website analysis / proposal on their website and show them how you can increase their online traffic and sales.
6. Referrals, referrals, referrals and partnerships. Speak to web design / web development and ISP companies, form partnerships, offer them commission if they refer companies to you.
7. Last but not least: There is nothing like cold calling. Go straight to your source, bypass the marketing manager, do not collect $200, and head straight for the decision maker. Again, as in tip #5, offer a FREE SEO website analysis.

Follow these steps and you can be sure that you’ll be on your way, just stick to your guns and persevere. Deals and contracts may not rush in overnight, however you can be sure sales and new clients will come about in a short period of time. Best of luck!

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Website content should be accessible, easy to find and easy to use. Poor usability results in lower conversion ratios and certainly from the perspective of lead generation or ecommerce sites should be considered paramount. One of Mediarun Search’s key differentiators is that we consider usability to be integral to most search engine optimisation projects. We consult our clients proposing improvements, which can make a dramatic difference to revenues.

From a search engine perspective accessibility is key. Search engines are effectively huge databases, which store web pages. If a site has factors preventing it from being indexed by search engines it will never return results let alone first page results. Many things could cause these issues, from server side configuration, characteristics of design; the information architecture and long complicated URL ’s, which prevent the search engine spiders indexing content. Mediarun Search will work with you to identify the optimal site structure and configuration to promote accessibility. We will modify the website architecture to improve human usability and to facilitate spiderability to crawl and index the deepest and farthest sections of your site.

Content/Relevancy

On page content needs to be keyword rich and highly relevant to the keywords you want to rank for. Content should be updated regularly and should add value to the user experience. This does not mean that a site should have huge amounts of static content pages or that the ‘look and feel’ of a site needs to be compromised. What it does mean however is that factors such as an over reliance on graphics for textual presentation, certain content generation techniques and poor html formatting should be avoided wherever possible. Factors such as these can result in a site or page not giving off a strong enough signal of relevancy to the words and phrases being targeted.

Mediarun Search’s London based SEO team will analyse your site in detail to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the content. Mediarun will optimise your site’s current content while our content writers will develop fresh new content to be integrated onto the site. This process dramatically improves and enhances the relevancy of site content to the keywords being targeted.

Credibility/Popularity

In their attempt to return relevant results for keyword searches, search engines try to gauge sites credibility. Some of the factors considered by the engines such as the age of the domain or previous ranking history cannot be influenced through search engine optimisation (SEO).

One of the most important factors the search engine considers is the number of inbound links a site or page has from third party sites. As an example if your site’s core content is related to lighting if you have numerous links to your site from other sites whose content is related to interior design, lighting technology or home furnishing the search engine will identify these relationships along with the sites which link to them. Google provides a credibility score out of ten known as Page Rank to each page it indexes.

Mediarun Search works to build highly credible links from directories, news sites, social media sites and other third party sites to improve your websites credibility and provide your business with a competitive edge, which will result in higher rankings traffic and revenues.

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The Creare Group introduce ‘The SEO Song’ starring Charlie And The Martyrs! It aims to promote the problems associated with black hat SEOs, and to raise awareness of the need for small to medium sized businesses to protect themselves against illegitimate optimisation techniques. Too many companies are promising to achieve top results in the search engines when they just cannot achieve these positions. The video seeks to place SEO at the forefront of attention in a fun and accessible way …

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