SEO Resources

SEO Resources

Welcome to our SEO resources page

After much discussion we felt the site and the world would benefit from an SEO resources page. If you are planning to search engine optimise your own website, or indeed someone else’s then this page maybe of use to you.

The page will only expand, and if there is a specific SEO topic you wish to know about, then please let us know, and we will do our best to bring you a resource for it.

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SEO Directories

Though it is generally thought that directories are not really rated by Google when determining page rank, there are a few that still will help your site be pushed up the rankings. The ones below are free sites, that are good to be listed on from an SEO perspective.

The ones below require reciprocal links

Specialised Directories

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Effective keyword strategy for SEO

Keywords used to be about density. The more phrases you repeated in a page the better that page was search engine optimised. Sadly, since Google released the Florida update, SEO has changed and with it the relevancy of keywords.

Keywords still represent a fundamental aspect in the world of SEO, but now in a slightly different format. Keywords now should be spread fairly evenly throughout the page, and linked to relevant information about the keyword. Do not repeat keyword, keyword at every opportunity, as Google just reads this as spam. So if your site is called “Bristol Motor Spares”, sentences like “motor spares come in all shapes and sizes”, are good. Sentences like “Bristol motor spares feature motor spares in all shapes and sizes, especially in Bristol”, are spam.

When the Florida update kicked in, many sites disappeared from the page rank

Mixing keywords

If you think about it, keywords can be similar, and so mixing them up is always a good idea. Lets look at the above example.

Bristol Motor Spares could be written in the following ways and carry the same meaning.

  • Bristol car spares.
  • Bristol motor parts.
  • Car spares.
  • Motor Spares.
  • Car parts from Bristol
  • Car components.
  • Motor components.

So as you can see this is just a few associated words. By splicing them into the copy will create an effective optimised page, that avoids being filtered out as spam. For your customers, will make it more meaningful and better to read. So you will have more chance of retaining traffic.

A tool you may want to consider to find relevant keywords is

Also, use plurals, synonyms, change the word order, and add in relevant keyword modifiers.

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More options for Link Campaigns

Here are some other options for successful link campaigns. Remember, quality when starting a link campaign, so a link from one of the SEO Gurus counts. If you link to them, they may well link to you. You can also hurry this process along by saying something useful in a forum on their website. Try and avoid, “Great advise”, or something in that vein. That is a little like going up to an attractive person and saying fancy a shag.

Press releases are another option and though they can be a mixed bag, do serve a purpose not only for SEO purposes but branding.

Some of the sites below have a basic free entry with other services and features that have to be paid for, but nonetheless, is a good place to start.

It is a good idea to use press release sites that are based in the country you are targeting your products, services at.

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Facebook and Pay Per Click Management

Though many people think of Pay Per Click Management in terms of Adsense, there are other forms of it that you may wish to consider. Adsense is very good for determining what keywords people are using to find your website, but in terms of brand awareness and winning that traffic directly, it does not always cut the mustard.

The reason for this is that as a sponsored link site, you may not appear down the side of the organic results, but instead appear only via another link. As we say at Link-optimise if you’re seen you’re sold, and guess what happens if you’re not seen?

Facebook on the other hand, will produce far better results in terms of direct traffic. There are two primary reasons for this:

  • The ad is shown on its own without competitors
  • The ad is always visible

You can target a Facebook ad at specific country, and age group. Our Link-optimise ad, potentially reached 18 million Facebook users. In three days, our ad earned us 179 clicks.

Our Adsense program earned us 7 clicks in the same amount of time.

If you are considering a Pay Per Click Management campaign and your aim is to get your brand out there and get noticed. Then I would advise Facebook as the medium over Adsense.

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Google webmaster tools has its uses

The webmaster tools from Google, takes analytics one step further. It can help you determine SEO facts that if you are serious about getting on the first page, you simply can not ignore.

Tool : Your site on the web: Top search queries. This can show:

  • What pages get the maximum traffic from Google. This does not mean the highest appearing page on the site, but the ones where your meta descriptions catch the eye, and attract a click or two.
  • What the top search queries are for the site. This gives you a real insight into what people who use your site look for.
  • The same tool can also show how much traffic came from blog searches, image searches and mobile devices, as well as conventional search engine searches.

Tool: Your site on the web: Links to your site. This can show

  • Shows the external links to your site, and to specific to pages. Just type in the URL you want the information for in the box at the top. It will also show the PR details of the source page, as well as the backlink.

Tool: Your site on the web:Subscriber stats. This can:

  • This part of webmasters will list all the RSS feeds you site has, and you can submit anyone as a site map.

Tool: Diagnositcs:HTML suggestions. This can:

  • Show problems with meta descriptions from your site. Too long, too short, duplicated. The information is here.

Tool: Diagnostics: Crawl stats. This can:

  • Show you some significant statistics about how many time pages were crawled, and show you what the most popular pages were per month.

Tool: Configuration:Crawler Access:Generate Robots.txt. This can:

  • This can help you create a robot file by taking you through a generate robot file wizard based on your preferences.

Tool: Configuration: Settings. This can:

  • Allow you to target your site at specific countries, providing you have a .com or .org domain. This will lower your rankings in other parts of the world.
  • Tell you how many of your pages have been submitted, and how many are actually indexed. Obviously, if there is a big difference then it is time to do something about it.
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Anchor that text or fall down a chasm!

Anchor text plays an important part in search engine optimisation, so it is important that you understand what it is about and how to use it.

When you link an external site to yours, using relevant keyword or term, helps search engines determine how important that link is. So for example, to link to our resources page, the hyperlink “here”, carries less relevance than the hyperlink, “SEO Resources”.

This may seem a little petty but if you are in a competitive industry, and your competitors have their anchor text in place and you do not, then they will have the advantage and the extra places on the page rank. They will have the traffic and you will be climbing out of the chasm.

So get your anchor text up to the mark.

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Tips for Google love

Many webmasters make the mistake of trying to make their websites leap up the rankings on Google. You are probably thinking the use of the word mistake is inaccurate, but actually it is not.

Google loves promoting websites it sees as authorities and exceptional on their chosen topics, it is why it values links from similar sites so much. So what can you do to become an authority in your chosen field.

  • Make your content interesting and informative. The content you put on your website, especially in a blog section should engage your reader. This way your reader may well return to your website, and thus you are building traffic.
  • Forget about SEO for a bit and concentrate on what you should be doing and that is making your website an authority in it’s chosen field.
  • There is little point trying to crack the Google algorithm as it changes frequently. Instead write for people instead or robots, and the results will pay you in the long run
  • Ensure that the site is optimised in terms of structure, tags, meta data etc, as this tends to survive the changes in search engine algorithms
  • See how your site looks on different devices, and ensure it is readable on every one. People who like your site are not all sitting in front of a computer you know.
  • Original content is key. If readers are just re-reading what they have read somewhere else, the will hit the back button. Nobody watches the same news.
  • Sites that tend to do well are either extremely popular or exclusive, either of these two models tend to bring success, so think about emulating them.

It may sound odd that to bring Google love you should not dwell too much on search engine optimisation techniques, but it is actually what Google wants you to do. It does not want you to suck up to it, but instead create a good website that gains popularity through being knowledgeable and good at what it does. If you can do this, you will gain popularity and Google love is sure to follow.

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