Google produces an SEO report for… Google!
Posted on March 4th, 2010
Google has received plenty of criticism in the past as being ‘Anti-SEO’, but its latest move may result in a softening of this theory. Google does SEO, and it has published its findings on a selection of 100 Google products on its webmaster blog for the world to see.
The Google SEO report card is written for a number of Google products by members of the Google search team. It aims to provide a few key SEO points for the other products to consider and ways to amend any errors found.
The usual suspects of on-page SEO appear, and it may be comforting to some to think that even the great Google can, and does, make mistakes.
The first statistic in the document states that, of the 100 products analysed, 10% had a suitable Title Tag format and length. The document goes on to give good points and bad points about the Google group of websites’ use of Heading Tags, Description Meta Tags, Alt Tags, Image Optimisation and other important SEO points.
The document doesn’t unearth any great hidden Google secrets, but it a very succinct glimpse into some of the points that Google engineers would consider to be the more important ones.
It is useful to note that Google prioritises the same points as many of us in the SEO industry, and its nice to think that you’re on the right track!
There is a constant reference to improving the users experience – something which Argo subscribe to completely. The idea that a well optimised web page should appeal to any human reading it as opposed to a web crawler also adds to the ROI by increasing click-through rates and improving bounce rates.
If you feel your site may suffer from any of the issues in the document then contact Argo to speak to one of our SEO consultants.
Tags: alt tags, google seo, google webmaster, heading tags, seo report
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Is page load time only useful for SEO?
Posted on February 15th, 2010
The recent hubbub surrounding Page Load time was sparked by a certain Search Engine including it in its recent ‘Caffeine’ update.
Google’s confirmation that it is now going to be considered as a ranking factor sent many SEOs wild, checking their page speeds and stripping down their page sizes in the hopes that they wouldn’t be penalised.
But should we have been checking page load times anyway? Of course! There is now no excuse not to check your sites load times, with Google Webmaster Central providing the Page speed tool for monitoring.
It has also been proved that page load time really matters to YOUR clients. Regardless of the SEO aspects, the benefits of increasing your page load speed could be huge.
Long page load times can be extremely off-putting for your clients. Surveys by Google, Bing and others have all shown an increased bounce rate when page load times increased. One survey revealed that 47% of site users expected pages to load within 2 seconds, after which they grew frustrated and even left the site completely.
This was shown to be even more vital for eCommerce sites. 65% of those surveyed had left a site halfway thorough the checkout process due to slow page load times. These users also commented that leaving a eCommerce site due to slow checkout and page load times would lead them to steer clear of that site in the future, and even cause them to give negative reviews to friends and family.
It seems that SEO’ are now panicking about page load time, yet the bigger picture shows that a greater return on investment can be had from giving a greater experience to your users – and this has always included giving them what they want – fast.
Tags: caffeine page speed, google webmaster page speed, page load time, search engine optimisation, seo page speed
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Will 2010 see the end of chasing Google SERPS?
Posted on February 4th, 2010
It seems that a lot of SEO companies, and internet marketeers in general are still chasing down that golden keyword, the one that will bring them a fortune if they can just achieve a top ranking in the Google SERPs for.
As most SEO’s will know, Google SERPs are not the be all and end all. Ensuring that your site is also optimised for the public (you know, your clients!) is also a huge factor.
A site that ranks #1 for its chosen keyword, yet is hideous to use and navigate is unlikely to achieve a high return on investment (ROI). All to often sites are optimised for Google bots and not for humans. This gives certain SEO’s a headline for their clients. “Look what we’ve achieved for you – you’re #1 in Google!” they would exclaim. Which is a great achievement, as long as the site is also optimised for the users it is aimed at.
Hopefully a few changes in Google’s search will put paid to the ‘rank-chasing’ SEO companies. The changes are likely to make the whole SEO process much more difficult, but at Argo we like a challenge!
Whether you look at Social Search, Personalised Search, or Local Search, Google are trying to give the best possible results for their users. Lets face it, Bing has had a fantastic first few months, by taking a larger market share than first anticipated, and receiving good reviews by users on its search experience.
The new searches aim to provide a more personalised service from Google, which could eventually lead to no 2 sets of SERPs being exactly the same. This would make achieving a high ranking difficult to say the least! Social Media will have more and more of an influence, along with your location, and even whether the searcher has visited your site before!
Bing and Google’s current struggle to make themselves the most user friendly search engine is creating a challenging yet fascinating time in the Search Engine Optimisation industry, ensuring that SEO’s think outside of the box more and more to receive the most traffic, and highest conversion rates for their clients.
Tags: bing, google blog, google serps, search engine optimisation, seo, social media
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Argo’s Must Have SEO Tools
Posted on January 27th, 2010
The Search Engine Optimisation industry seems to be awash with companies that have a ’secret’ formula to SEO, or so they would have you believe! At Argo though, we know there is no special combination of ways to achieve online success – its down to having the right tools, and knowing how to interpret the data information they pump out.
The thought of telling people what tools they use would seem alien to some SEO companies, but our success comes from how we use the tools – not just the tools themselves.
At Argo Internet Business Consultants, we use a variety of Keyword, Optimisation and tracking tools to ensure that our customers get the best out of our SEO consultants.
Using a variety of tools is important to us, in that SEO is still an industry where information can differ greatly depending on the source. Using just one Keyword Research tool for example would only give us one set of data. Our skills lie in taking the information from a multitude of tools and combining it to get the best result for our clients.
Keyword Discovery, Wordstream and Google’s own Adwords and SKTools all have important parts to play in choosing the Keywords for our clients. Argo firmly believe that a human influence is often needed for Keyword research, and good old fashioned surveys can also help to make the most important decision in the SEO process.
Argos SEO Consultants also use a variety of Firefox SEO Toolbars such as Foxy SEO Tool and Web Developer Toolbar, along with the Google Toolbar. these can cut down the time spent on simpler tasks and give important analytical information on our clients and competitors sites.
SEO PowerSuite, comprising Link Assistant, Rank Tracker, SEO Spyglass and Website Auditor is a very useful package, in the same way that WebCeo is. SEO Powersuite is a more user friendly product and is great value for money!
SEOmoz provide a large number of tools, some of which are free, for SEO professionals and site owners. With over 20 tools, they have a pretty comprehensive list!
Potentially one of SEOmoz’ most influential tools is the ‘Linkscape’ open source explorer. Yahoo’s site explorer was one of the most widely used SEO tools, and was the basis of many other tools. It appears now that it will be discontinued this year, leaving Linkscape to take up the mantle.
Tags: Keyword Suggestion, Keyword Tools, search engine optimisation, seo, seo tools
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Argo’s SEO promise for 2010!
Posted on January 20th, 2010
It seems an eternity since we last updated our SEO blog (ok,ok, so it has), things have been hectic here at Argo HQ, and theres big things afoot for 2010.
One of our new years resolutions to each other, and you was that we are going to pay better attention to the blog. You can look forward to more structured, regular updates on all things SEO and internet marketing.
2010 looks to be a huge year of upheaval for Search engine optimisation. The Social Media argument is still raging, with differences of opinion across the industry as to how influential and appropriate social media sites such as facebook and twitter are in internet marketing.
The Search Engines themselves are facing upheaval too. Yahoo is set to stop using its own search results this year, after the merger with Microsoft last year. This will make Bing a big player for SEO – even though its market share dropped last month, it still holds between 20 and 30 % depending on who’s figures you read!
This will in turn see the demise of the Yahoo Site Explorer, and other tools that have become widely used by SEO companies across the world, which could pave the way for SEOmoz’ linkscape to become the new tool of choice.
Google’s constant bombardment of updates and additions carries on into 2010, with real-time search, the algorithms understanding of synonyms and caffeine being major recent changes.
Real-time search was added at the end of 2009, initially across the SERPs, but after a few blog posts has been relegated to ’show options’. The ability to have a constantly updated feed of tweets, status updates and the like for a particular search term has pro’s and con’s but, like everything,will eventually add to the role of social media in SEO.
Matt Cutts has assured the community that Caffeine is coming. Testing has been in progress for a while, with selected ip’s running caffeine for 50% of the time. Caffeine is expected to start going live across the world ’sometime in January’. So that would be about now then! Can you feel the tension?
Argo are, quite simply, excited about this year, and what it has to bring for Internet Marketing. We aim to keep an eye on the industry with weekly news updates and tutorials. We love SEO and want to sift through the technical jargon and offer updates in plain english, If you’re interested in SEO too, then stick with us!
Argo – Clever Ideas, Simple Explanations
Tags: google caffeine, Internet Marketing, linkscape, seo, seo blog, simple seo, yahoo site explorer
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New! Search Engine Optimisation Copywriting from Argo
Posted on October 23rd, 2009
At Argo, we love SEO. We also love writing great content. Couple these together and you get the Argo Search Engine Optimisation Copywriting Service. Now that’s a bit of a mouthful – so lets just call it SEO copywriting!
As you may have read in a lot of our previous blog’s, great content is one of the fundamental pieces of great SEO. Not only should it contain a suitable amount of keywords and phrases, it should also be an informative piece of text – you need to give your customers something to read!
The idea behind seo copywriting is to create new, authentic content and not pages that are designed just to get high search engine rankings. Argo’s SEO copywriters can create content that can engage your readers – and increase your conversion results!
Argo’s SEO Copywriters have been working behind the scenes on a variety of websites and blogs recently, from debt management to social work. To speak to one of our SEO Copywriting consultants, call 01424 776215 or contact argo!
Tags: search engine optimisation, seo, seo copywriting
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Blogging for SEO: tips and hints from the Internet Business Consultants
Posted on September 17th, 2009
You may have read Jess’ recent blog post saying that blogging was 10 years old last month, and we have promised you some helpful hints and tips for your business blogs – so here goes!
Firstly you need to choose a blogging platform – a place to blog! If you already have a website and hosting package you may be able to host your own platform.
Hosting your own blog as an addition to your current website opens up blogging platforms such as Habari, ExpressionEngine and movable type; as well as being able to host your own Wordpress blog (such as the one you are reading now!!!)
Franky Branck’s blog last year made a great comparison of the big, self hosted blogging platforms with many pro’s and con’s.
If you do not have a website, or have a basic template website, you could also opt to have your blog hosted by the blog provider themselves. Wordpress, Typepad and Blogger are all examples of platforms that offer hosting packages for various prices.
There are pro’s and con’s for each – Blogger is the longest running blogging site, and possibly the safest due to 2003’s Google takeover. Typepad has a vast range of features ‘out of the box’, and the open source Wordpress platform has a huge range of community built plug-ins. Blogging is a very personal thing, and everyone will have their own favourite blogging platform – it’s up to you which one you choose!
Tags: business blogging, sem, seo, seo blog
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10 years on and Blogging is bigger than ever
Posted on September 17th, 2009
Last month, Blogger celebrated its 10th birthday, and with it signalled 10 years since the phrase ‘blog’ was coined by Evan Williams at Pyra Labs. Later consumed by internet behemoth Google, Pyra Labs founded Blogger in 1999, making it available to the public in August 1999.
Blogging has become the easy way for individuals, businesses, celebrities and everyone in between to share their thoughts to the world. Technorati – the blog search engine – had indexed 133 million blog records at the time of their state of the blogosphere report 2008.
With Social Media site Twitter being labelled a form of micro-blogging, Technorati have increased their span to encompass this.
Businesses have found that blogging can add an extra dimension to their internet marketing campaigns. By adding a more personal approach, and increasing the amount of information available to their customers, business blogging can potentially yield a good ROI.
Don’t forget – Blogging can also help your Google serps ranking as part of a structured Search Engine Optimisation and Interent Marketing Campaign! (is it me or did that last bit sound like a Special K advert?!)
Tags: business blogging, Internet Marketing, search engine optimisation, seo
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Facebook makes money and 300 million users!
Posted on September 17th, 2009
Social media networking site Facebook has now reached an amazing 300 million users worldwide. After releasing figures in July to say it had reached 250 million users, it seems that the last 2 months has seen an extra 50 million users – thats nearly 10 every second! Only 6 million to go before Facebook becomes as populated as the USA!
The other big news from Mark Zuckerberg, on Facebooks blog, was that of its cashflow situation. For the first time, Facebook have declared that they are cashflow positive. Yes, Facebook have achieved something that Twitter are still struggling with. $716 million of investment over 5 and a half years seems to be starting to pay off.
The news comes soon after the introduction of Facebook Lite – specifically introduced for countries with slower internet connections.
Tags: facebook, search engine optimisation, social media, twitter
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Facebook are @ it again
Posted on September 11th, 2009
Facebook’s brand new status tagging service may seem fairly similar to some social media users. The new service is based around the Facebook status update.
Status tagging involves adding an ‘@’ sign into your status to include a link to one of your friends profiles. For example; typing ‘Off to the beach with @John Prescott’ would provide a link to John Prescott’s page – providing you are friends with good old two jabs that is! As you type, the ‘@’ tag will provide a drop down box of friends and fan pages that you can mention.
Now, havn’t we seen that somewhere before?
This ‘twitteresque’ function shows just how intent Facebook are on dominating the social media industry. It would be interesting to see if they also introduce the hash tag (#) function.
This week also saw the introduction of ‘Facebook lite’, a stripped down version of the social media site that looks cleaner and loads quicker.
I’d love to give you a full review of both these services, but it seems that neither are fully available in the UK yet, so we’ll have to wait and see!
Tags: facebook, facebook lite, hashtag, social media news, twitter
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