View the original article here
Source: SEO
View the original article here
Source: SEO
PR is no longer the future of SEO. It already is PR.
SEOs recognise this, and the majority are now carrying out online PR: whether they call it that or not, all decent SEOs are now creating content and reaching out to online influencers.
General marketers realise this. In a survey we recently conducted of 250 UK marketers, 52% said that PR and SEO work closely together in their organisation, and a whopping 71% think their PR agencies are experts at SEO.
But how are those PR agencies performing in their newfound position as SEO experts?
A majority of those marketers, 61%, said they do not have sufficient SEO knowledge in house, so it's no surprise they are relying on agency expertise. But it seems that many PR agencies are still playing catch up, and are potentially underserving their clients.
This suspicion is based on what PR agencies have told us ourselves through their most powerful tool to offer SEO as a service.
Our research partner Retortal has a huge index of websites in the UK, and crawled the sites for those with 'PR' in their home page title, concluding that those sites were primarily companies offering PR services.
They then crawled those sites found, looking for the term 'SEO' anywhere on the site, the assumption being that if they were offering SEO as a service that they'd have the sense to mention it on their website somewhere.
A mere 26% were found to have any mention of SEO, leaving 74% that don't. We can assume that these sites fall into two categories of PR company; those that do offer SEO services but have failed to implement basic SEO practice on their own site in mentioning it, and those that just don't offer it at all.
If you ask me, either mistake is pretty heinous.
One response to this could be, if PR and SEO are the same thing, why do PR agencies even need to offer SEO as a separate service? As a PR agency that does offer SEO as a service to clients, it's a question we've come across.
The simple response is that an agency sells expertise and time, and SEO is more of both. Especially when it involves extensive site audits, on-site changes and keyword research, the more technical bits of SEO that are less closely related to PR.
But taking a step back, the fundamental difference is to do with objectives. The objective of SEO is ultimately to drive more quality traffic to the website. That can be a PR objective, but more ordinarily PR's remit is further up the funnel, generating awareness of a business, brand or person, or more generally managing the public perception of them.
Thinking of the two as services and the buying process of a potential client, offering the two as separate services is essential because buyers do not first think in terms of services, they think in terms of problems and objectives. This means –
"I'd like more quality organic search traffic to my website, so I need SEO."OR "I'd like more people to be aware of my business, or to solve a particular perception problem, so I need PR."Perhaps in time this may change, but at the moment that is the common buying thought process, as born out by the fact that searches for 'PR agency' and searches for 'SEO agency' are continuing to converge. And while that is the case, PR agencies not offering SEO services are going to fall behind.
Ian McKee is Senior Account Manager at EML Wildfire and a guest blogger on Econsultancy. You can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Plus.
View the original article here
Source: SEO
PR is no longer the future of SEO. It already is PR.
SEOs recognise this, and the majority are now carrying out online PR: whether they call it that or not, all decent SEOs are now creating content and reaching out to online influencers.
General marketers realise this. In a survey we recently conducted of 250 UK marketers, 52% said that PR and SEO work closely together in their organisation, and a whopping 71% think their PR agencies are experts at SEO.
But how are those PR agencies performing in their newfound position as SEO experts?
A majority of those marketers, 61%, said they do not have sufficient SEO knowledge in house, so it’s no surprise they are relying on agency expertise. But it seems that many PR agencies are still playing catch up, and are potentially underserving their clients.
This suspicion is based on what PR agencies have told us ourselves through their most powerful tool to offer SEO as a service.
Our research partner Retortal has a huge index of websites in the UK, and crawled the sites for those with ‘PR’ in their home page title, concluding that those sites were primarily companies offering PR services.
They then crawled those sites found, looking for the term ‘SEO’ anywhere on the site, the assumption being that if they were offering SEO as a service that they’d have the sense to mention it on their website somewhere.
A mere 26% were found to have any mention of SEO, leaving 74% that don’t. We can assume that these sites fall into two categories of PR company; those that do offer SEO services but have failed to implement basic SEO practice on their own site in mentioning it, and those that just don’t offer it at all.
If you ask me, either mistake is pretty heinous.
One response to this could be, if PR and SEO are the same thing, why do PR agencies even need to offer SEO as a separate service? As a PR agency that does offer SEO as a service to clients, it’s a question we’ve come across.
The simple response is that an agency sells expertise and time, and SEO is more of both. Especially when it involves extensive site audits, on-site changes and keyword research, the more technical bits of SEO that are less closely related to PR.
But taking a step back, the fundamental difference is to do with objectives. The objective of SEO is ultimately to drive more quality traffic to the website. That can be a PR objective, but more ordinarily PR’s remit is further up the funnel, generating awareness of a business, brand or person, or more generally managing the public perception of them.
Thinking of the two as services and the buying process of a potential client, offering the two as separate services is essential because buyers do not first think in terms of services, they think in terms of problems and objectives. This means –
“I’d like more quality organic search traffic to my website, so I need SEO.”OR “I’d like more people to be aware of my business, or to solve a particular perception problem, so I need PR.”Perhaps in time this may change, but at the moment that is the common buying thought process, as born out by the fact that searches for ‘PR agency’ and searches for ‘SEO agency’ are continuing to converge. And while that is the case, PR agencies not offering SEO services are going to fall behind.
Ian McKee is Senior Account Manager at EML Wildfire and a guest blogger on Econsultancy. You can follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Plus.
It's a much quoted internet 'fact' that YouTube is the second most popular search engine. But using the standard definition of a search engine as a system that can crawl every murky corner of the world wide web to find the information you need, this isn't strictly true. YouTube's integrated search function only searches YouTube. The very fact that only Google's search box receives more queries emphasizes how important a channel like YouTube can be.
Here are a few vital stats. YouTube has more than 1 billion unique user visits each month. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month and 70% of traffic comes from outside the US, making YouTube a truly global phenomenon. Individual videos can reach vast numbers of people. Gangnam Style by South Korean musician Psy was the first YouTube video to receive a billion views, but the platform can be used to promote more than just novelty pop songs and hilarious cat videos.
Videos offer a more vibrant way to communicate with existing and potential new customers. Not everyone reads blogs or is willing to wade through content on corporate websites. Video is the next best thing to face-to-face contact. It allows you to present your brand message in a way that can be entertaining, funny, emotive or otherwise engaging on a basic human level. YouTube videos can play a part in any integrated campaign. They can be easily embedded on websites and blogs and to distribute to other social networks. Online video is the most consumed content format online and affords you a great opportunity to get your message across.
Create different channels for different markets. Global brands like Vodafone have separate channels for viewers in different countries and it's not just about speaking a different language. The majority of customers in the US, UK and New Zealand might share a common language, but there are still cultural differences. Setting up different channels gives you the opportunity to tailor your message to suit the audience. This also helps with optimization, which we'll come to next, as you can build in foreign-language SEO and location-specific keywords. Finally, don't forget that some country names are different in their own native language. Don't set up a channel name for Germany, use Deutschland instead.
When dealing with videos you generally have less to play with when it comes to optimization, but the same rules apply as with any other kind of content. Keywords are still important and you shouldn't rely on straight 'dictionary' translations of your English language keywords if you are shooting for an international audience. What works in one language might not work as well in another, as alternatives could be far more effective. This doesn't mean that you have to throw out all your carefully researched English keywords. Use them as a starting point but run translations through keyword tools to see what still works and what doesn't. Brainstorm alternatives with a native speaking translator to find the most effective.
Once you have your keywords, optimize everything you can. Your video title, description, your channel bio, and tags can all house keywords. You can even translate and optimize any comments you make.
All the written content surrounding your video needs to be translated, as does the content of the video itself. Don't rely on automatic translation programs as these are prone to errors. Working with native speaking translators will help you get the best results and can also help you strike the right tone, making relevant cultural references and avoiding cultural faux pas.
Effective localization can really help you connect with your audience. Take a look at Pepsi's YouTube page and you'll see that they have localized channels for different markets such as Egypt, Spain, and Vietnam. Each channel hosts videos tailored for a particular audience, with the Egyptian channel featuring the Pepsi Ramadan campaign and a series of humorous ads based around the Egyptian national soccer team.
While it is the single most important video hosting platform, YouTube isn't the only one out there. In China, for example, where YouTube is famously banned, sites like Youku and Tudou fill the gap. A Comscore study of online video viewing in Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines showed that, while Google sites including YouTube had by far the biggest single market share, they accounted for less than half of total video viewing.
With a little research and forward planning it's possible to tap into whole new markets via video marketing. And making multilingual video SEO part of your overall strategy can really help maximise your results.
Image created by author.
View the original article here
Source: SEO
It’s a much quoted internet ‘fact’ that YouTube is the second most popular search engine. But using the standard definition of a search engine as a system that can crawl every murky corner of the world wide web to find the information you need, this isn’t strictly true. YouTube’s integrated search function only searches YouTube. The very fact that only Google’s search box receives more queries emphasizes how important a channel like YouTube can be.
Here are a few vital stats. YouTube has more than 1 billion unique user visits each month. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month and 70% of traffic comes from outside the US, making YouTube a truly global phenomenon. Individual videos can reach vast numbers of people. Gangnam Style by South Korean musician Psy was the first YouTube video to receive a billion views, but the platform can be used to promote more than just novelty pop songs and hilarious cat videos.
Videos offer a more vibrant way to communicate with existing and potential new customers. Not everyone reads blogs or is willing to wade through content on corporate websites. Video is the next best thing to face-to-face contact. It allows you to present your brand message in a way that can be entertaining, funny, emotive or otherwise engaging on a basic human level. YouTube videos can play a part in any integrated campaign. They can be easily embedded on websites and blogs and to distribute to other social networks. Online video is the most consumed content format online and affords you a great opportunity to get your message across.
Create different channels for different markets. Global brands like Vodafone have separate channels for viewers in different countries and it’s not just about speaking a different language. The majority of customers in the US, UK and New Zealand might share a common language, but there are still cultural differences. Setting up different channels gives you the opportunity to tailor your message to suit the audience. This also helps with optimization, which we’ll come to next, as you can build in foreign-language SEO and location-specific keywords. Finally, don’t forget that some country names are different in their own native language. Don’t set up a channel name for Germany, use Deutschland instead.
When dealing with videos you generally have less to play with when it comes to optimization, but the same rules apply as with any other kind of content. Keywords are still important and you shouldn’t rely on straight ‘dictionary’ translations of your English language keywords if you are shooting for an international audience. What works in one language might not work as well in another, as alternatives could be far more effective. This doesn’t mean that you have to throw out all your carefully researched English keywords. Use them as a starting point but run translations through keyword tools to see what still works and what doesn’t. Brainstorm alternatives with a native speaking translator to find the most effective.
Once you have your keywords, optimize everything you can. Your video title, description, your channel bio, and tags can all house keywords. You can even translate and optimize any comments you make.
All the written content surrounding your video needs to be translated, as does the content of the video itself. Don’t rely on automatic translation programs as these are prone to errors. Working with native speaking translators will help you get the best results and can also help you strike the right tone, making relevant cultural references and avoiding cultural faux pas.
Effective localization can really help you connect with your audience. Take a look at Pepsi’s YouTube page and you’ll see that they have localized channels for different markets such as Egypt, Spain, and Vietnam. Each channel hosts videos tailored for a particular audience, with the Egyptian channel featuring the Pepsi Ramadan campaign and a series of humorous ads based around the Egyptian national soccer team.
While it is the single most important video hosting platform, YouTube isn’t the only one out there. In China, for example, where YouTube is famously banned, sites like Youku and Tudou fill the gap. A Comscore study of online video viewing in Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines showed that, while Google sites including YouTube had by far the biggest single market share, they accounted for less than half of total video viewing.
With a little research and forward planning it’s possible to tap into whole new markets via video marketing. And making multilingual video SEO part of your overall strategy can really help maximise your results.
Image created by author.
The digital world is evolving at a rapid rate and change is constant with digital marketing. 20 years ago, no one could have predicted where we are today and that we would have a "Google" that can determine the success of a business online. No one knew back then that a couple of keywords relevant to the services and products of a business could either create major success, or be their downfall. Change is imminent online and if you are in the SEO game I'm sure you have seen an article or five stating that SEO is dead. Rest assured folks, SEO isn't dead — it's evolving.
It's estimated that Google changes its search algorithm approximately 500-600 times a year so that it can provide the best experience to its users and the most relevant, up to date, and accurate information. With this, it makes sense that Google has to constantly update its algorithm. For all the major known algorithm updates on Google, view this page on Moz. All the updates have a massive effect on SEO and business as new strategies and methods have to be implemented to get organic rankings and to maintain them.
Google isn't the only channel that keeps on changing. Look at how social media has evolved over the last couple of years and how it is now an integral part of business for many. It's impacting how we communicate online and do business. Social media has also opened up the floodgates where anyone can now be a citizen journalist and publish anything about anyone online. People are also more likely to trust a recommendation from a friend or a family member than by a search engine. This means that if the search engines aren't embracing social media, they are going to lose out big time.
With this, Google integrated social media into their core search algorithm and in 2010, the famous Matt Cutts announced that Google is using "social signals" in their search algorithm, and they have been doing this for a while. Social signals play an important part in increasing website traffic and to obtain organic rankings and have been doing so for a while, but many are only starting to realize this now. What does this mean? It means that SEO has evolved once again and is now working hand in hand with social media.
What are social signals?
Social signals are votes and recommendations generated on the social web in the form of likes, shares, retweets, mentions, pins, and +1's that are generated from top social media channels like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest.
Social signals also play an important part in your online reputation (digital footprint) among consumers. Having a good reputation online and on various social media channels can improve your organic rankings because this is directly seen by Google as trusted recommendations that you receive from people online.
Traditional SEO
Traditional search engine optimization consists of on page optimization tactics, content, keywords, and links to determine your organic rankings, but now that Google is using social signals as a ranking factor, why should you only focus on traditional SEO methods? You shouldn't. This doesn't mean that you should stop what you are busy doing with SEO. You should just change your strategy and tactics to include social media to take advantage of social signals.
In 2007 Google registered a patent called "Agent Rank". Here's the abstract directly from Google about "Agent Rank":
The present invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing techniques for searching and ranking linked information sources. The techniques include receiving multiple content items from a corpus of content items; receiving digital signatures each made by one of multiple agents, each digital signature associating one of the agents with one or more of the content items; and assigning a score to a first agent of the multiple agents, wherein the score is based upon the content items associated with the first agent by the digital signatures.
What it basically means is that your Agent Rank or "AuthorRank" will be determined by your reputation online as a content creator and it will influence the results on Google Search. AJ Kohn summed it up quite nicely on a blog post he did in March 2012 where he explains Author Rank: "…verified content by an author will be graded and it is that grade that influences the rank of content in search results."
Why do you have to verify your content and what does it have to do with social signals? Through Google+, the all-knowing social network, you should verify your content. This means that the Google+ social network directly provides social signals to Google that can affect your organic rankings. This is just one of many social signals, but I believe it's going to play a bigger role in the future.
Why you should start focusing on social signals with your search engine optimization strategy:
More votes online means more social signals Having lots of Twitter retweets and Facebook likes won't get you to the top organic rankings, but it can help. Focusing on social signals will help you generate repeat visitors. Google uses social signals to find out what is happening on the social web and what content is valuable. Social signals can help improve the visibility of your brand onlinePeople are visiting certain websites because more people have recommended that particular site by a friend, family, and colleagues through social media or directly. Websites that are socially active have better conversion rates and at the end of the day better brand loyalty, which contributes highly in getting "social votes" that, provides social signals to Google.
I love reading. Before I buy a new book I search on Google for the book and usually one of the first results that pops up is a listing from Amazon. On Amazon I'll read the comments of the book and make the final decision based on the recommendations provided by real people who have read the book. This is powerful, as I started looking for the book on Google and ended up on a website that focuses on social signals directly. How can you take advantage of this?
SEO and social media keep on evolving at a rapid rate and social signals can play a huge role in your search engine optimization strategy.
View the original article here
Source: SEO
The digital world is evolving at a rapid rate and change is constant with digital marketing. 20 years ago, no one could have predicted where we are today and that we would have a “Google” that can determine the success of a business online. No one knew back then that a couple of keywords relevant to the services and products of a business could either create major success, or be their downfall. Change is imminent online and if you are in the SEO game I’m sure you have seen an article or five stating that SEO is dead. Rest assured folks, SEO isn’t dead — it’s evolving.
It’s estimated that Google changes its search algorithm approximately 500-600 times a year so that it can provide the best experience to its users and the most relevant, up to date, and accurate information. With this, it makes sense that Google has to constantly update its algorithm. For all the major known algorithm updates on Google, view this page on Moz. All the updates have a massive effect on SEO and business as new strategies and methods have to be implemented to get organic rankings and to maintain them.
Google isn’t the only channel that keeps on changing. Look at how social media has evolved over the last couple of years and how it is now an integral part of business for many. It’s impacting how we communicate online and do business. Social media has also opened up the floodgates where anyone can now be a citizen journalist and publish anything about anyone online. People are also more likely to trust a recommendation from a friend or a family member than by a search engine. This means that if the search engines aren’t embracing social media, they are going to lose out big time.
With this, Google integrated social media into their core search algorithm and in 2010, the famous Matt Cutts announced that Google is using “social signals” in their search algorithm, and they have been doing this for a while. Social signals play an important part in increasing website traffic and to obtain organic rankings and have been doing so for a while, but many are only starting to realize this now. What does this mean? It means that SEO has evolved once again and is now working hand in hand with social media.
What are social signals?
Social signals are votes and recommendations generated on the social web in the form of likes, shares, retweets, mentions, pins, and +1's that are generated from top social media channels like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest.
Social signals also play an important part in your online reputation (digital footprint) among consumers. Having a good reputation online and on various social media channels can improve your organic rankings because this is directly seen by Google as trusted recommendations that you receive from people online.
Traditional SEO
Traditional search engine optimization consists of on page optimization tactics, content, keywords, and links to determine your organic rankings, but now that Google is using social signals as a ranking factor, why should you only focus on traditional SEO methods? You shouldn’t. This doesn’t mean that you should stop what you are busy doing with SEO. You should just change your strategy and tactics to include social media to take advantage of social signals.
In 2007 Google registered a patent called “Agent Rank“. Here’s the abstract directly from Google about “Agent Rank”:
The present invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing techniques for searching and ranking linked information sources. The techniques include receiving multiple content items from a corpus of content items; receiving digital signatures each made by one of multiple agents, each digital signature associating one of the agents with one or more of the content items; and assigning a score to a first agent of the multiple agents, wherein the score is based upon the content items associated with the first agent by the digital signatures.
What it basically means is that your Agent Rank or “AuthorRank” will be determined by your reputation online as a content creator and it will influence the results on Google Search. AJ Kohn summed it up quite nicely on a blog post he did in March 2012 where he explains Author Rank: “…verified content by an author will be graded and it is that grade that influences the rank of content in search results.”
Why do you have to verify your content and what does it have to do with social signals? Through Google+, the all-knowing social network, you should verify your content. This means that the Google+ social network directly provides social signals to Google that can affect your organic rankings. This is just one of many social signals, but I believe it’s going to play a bigger role in the future.
Why you should start focusing on social signals with your search engine optimization strategy:
More votes online means more social signals Having lots of Twitter retweets and Facebook likes won’t get you to the top organic rankings, but it can help. Focusing on social signals will help you generate repeat visitors. Google uses social signals to find out what is happening on the social web and what content is valuable. Social signals can help improve the visibility of your brand onlinePeople are visiting certain websites because more people have recommended that particular site by a friend, family, and colleagues through social media or directly. Websites that are socially active have better conversion rates and at the end of the day better brand loyalty, which contributes highly in getting “social votes” that, provides social signals to Google.
I love reading. Before I buy a new book I search on Google for the book and usually one of the first results that pops up is a listing from Amazon. On Amazon I’ll read the comments of the book and make the final decision based on the recommendations provided by real people who have read the book. This is powerful, as I started looking for the book on Google and ended up on a website that focuses on social signals directly. How can you take advantage of this?
SEO and social media keep on evolving at a rapid rate and social signals can play a huge role in your search engine optimization strategy.
In Google's relentless pursuit of organizing the world's information, the most exciting shift we've seen over the last year is about its ability to understand the "meaning" behind content (via the Knowledge Graph) and queries (via its Hummingbird algorithm update).
In the past, Google had to rely on the words on the page, matching them to the words that someone searched on. Now, the revolution that is upon us is matching the intent of the query to the suitability of a page that matches that intent.
This has significant implications for SEOs; and, as I speak with some of the smartest SEOs in the world about this shift, one of the recurring themes seems to be a new appreciation for and focus on semantic SEO.
Smart marketers saw structured data markup as being an important part of their SEO strategy in 2012 and 2013. The trend and push around it has grown substantially — two out of three enterprises surveyed say they plan to make implementing or expanding structured data markup one of their top priorities for 2014 (Clarity Global SEO Conference, September 2013).
I find that when companies begin thinking about whether or not to spend the time and effort on implementing or expanding semantic markup, most of them hit a snag because they start with the following question.
That's the wrong question — and the wrong way to approach SEO as a marketer!
If I told you that you could have twice as much traffic by ranking in position #2 as opposed to position #1, would you care about rank positions?
As a marketer, my end goal is not the highest possible rankings; it is the highest possible traffic, conversions and revenue (however you define "success" for your business).
It is something we tend to forget because search engine limitations of the past have trained us to think of rankings and traffic/revenue/conversions as synonymous. That's not the case and hasn't been for a while — and smart marketers know that.
Keeping your 2014 roadmap in mind, ask these 3 questions when thinking about where structured data markup fits in:
1. Will it improve the user experience and interaction with my brand?
The answer is a resounding YES. While structured data markup on your page is not visible to visitors, the rich snippets that markup provides in the SERPs allows for a much more engaging experience for users.
Compare the results below:
Vs.
This is a great example of markup used to provide users with a richer experience. Being able to see the image, rating and reviews at a quick glance, without having to click through or read lengthy sentences, is a big plus. Regardless of its ranking in the SERPs, consider how this rich listing might stand out from the higher-ranking competition.
2. Is it aligning with how search engines will handle searches and search results in the future?
You guessed it; the answer is YES.
The old format of search results — as an ordered list of progressively less relevant sites — is fundamentally flawed, a result of decade-old limitations that search engines are striving to surpass. Google has already made great progress in improving the ordered list format from one based on just keyword matches to one that accounts for diversity of opinion and sentiment, freshness, personalization, localization and other factors.
Semantic search is the pursuit of helping respond to both implicit and explicit queries based on the meaning behind the queries — the challenge of getting users from a question to an answer not only with fewer clicks or searches, but in many cases, without a click at all.
Google's knowledge graph, instant answers, and Google Now are great examples of the future of the searching experience. With these technologies, relevant information is available based on the implicit (behaviorally- or environmentally-based) or explicit (a typed or voice search) query. Search engines return the right answers — not just a list of links to choose from. By using structured markup, you can help the search engines better understand how your content provides a solution to a query now and as it evolves in the future.
3. Will it help improve my bottom line?
Well, okay… for this one, I will say, "It depends." If you're doing things correctly on your site as far as converting visitors and you have decent rankings (meaning, you have the fundamentals in place to actually warrant a ranking on the top couple of pages), structured markup will most definitely help improve your click-through-rate — your share of the clicks from the search results page.
Rich snippets (driven by structured data markup) have a tremendous impact on the click-through-rate in listings. In fact, at SMX Advanced, I had the honor of presenting on a Google+ Authorship test where we saw a 2x lift in clicks for a blog post with author markup compared to one without.
2x Lift in Traffic with Authorship Markup!If you have fundamental technical or content issues on your site — missing page titles, broken links, duplicate content — your focus should be there. Your site must be in order before you can participate effectively in the changing search experience.
So what are you waiting for? Your existing digital assets — videos, reviews, products, events, local business information — can be working harder for you if you provide search engines a little help in understanding them. Make sure semantic markup is part of your roadmap for 2014, because you can bet it is for your competitors!
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: All Things SEO Column | Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org | Search Marketing | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | SEO: GeneralView the original article here
Source: SEO
topseos.co.uk has announced SEO.co.uk the 5th best search engine optimization consultant in the United Kingdom in the November 2013 edition of the ratings. The ratings are formulated through a meticulous analysis of the core services provided by each consultant. Businesses looking for impressive search engine optimization firms turn to topseos.co.uk to find firms which have been evaluated by an independent third party.
The independent research team at topseos.co.uk performs a methodical examination of the internet marketing services in the United Kingdom in order to remain apprised of the latest achievements of contesting search engine marketing consultants. Contesting consultants are analyzed through the use of five criteria of examination in areas including on page optimization, needs analysis, keyword analysis, reporting methods, and off page optimization. The ratings of top search engine marketing consultants is revised based on the results of the examination to highlight the top in the internet marketing industry.
For a more rigorous analysis of performing SEO companies the independent analysis team at topseos.co.uk interviews client references of the top performing internet marketing companies in the United Kingdom. Clients are asked various questions about the services provided to them and about their experiences with the internet marketing company. Clients often go out of their way to reach topseos.co.uk directly to tell of their experiences and opinions pertaining to internet marketing services.
SEO.co.uk has been scrutinized as a part of the methodical investigation and has earned their placement as the best SEO firm in the UK. Through strong customer referrals and high scores in each of the five verticals of evaluation, SEO.co.uk has passed each phase of the investigation process. Those hunting for a strong SEO firm to assist them should consider SEO.co.uk.
About SEO.co.uk
SEO.co.uk provides professionally managed PPC management services for businesses looking to expand or maximize the potential of their pay per click initiatives. They provide PPC management services through the use of marketing professionals with years of experience in managing Google Adwords campaigns which can get the most out of an online advertising budget. SEO.co.uk is an Adwords qualified company, proving that they have been certified by Google as a company which is proficient in managing PPC management campaigns.
About topseos.co.uk
topseos.co.uk is an established independent research firm in the UK focusing on the evaluation and ratings of online marketing firms all around the world. The ratings are formulated by the independent research team each month to highlight the best SEO firms based on their performance and their rating achieved through the proprietary evaluation process.
For additional information about SEO.co.uk visit: seocouk.topseos.co.uk.
The 30 top search engine marketing firms for November 2013 can be found at: topseos.news-prs.com/gb/seo-rankings.
In Google’s relentless pursuit of organizing the world’s information, the most exciting shift we’ve seen over the last year is about its ability to understand the “meaning” behind content (via the Knowledge Graph) and queries (via its Hummingbird algorithm update).
In the past, Google had to rely on the words on the page, matching them to the words that someone searched on. Now, the revolution that is upon us is matching the intent of the query to the suitability of a page that matches that intent.
This has significant implications for SEOs; and, as I speak with some of the smartest SEOs in the world about this shift, one of the recurring themes seems to be a new appreciation for and focus on semantic SEO.
Smart marketers saw structured data markup as being an important part of their SEO strategy in 2012 and 2013. The trend and push around it has grown substantially — two out of three enterprises surveyed say they plan to make implementing or expanding structured data markup one of their top priorities for 2014 (Clarity Global SEO Conference, September 2013).
I find that when companies begin thinking about whether or not to spend the time and effort on implementing or expanding semantic markup, most of them hit a snag because they start with the following question.
That’s the wrong question — and the wrong way to approach SEO as a marketer!
If I told you that you could have twice as much traffic by ranking in position #2 as opposed to position #1, would you care about rank positions?
As a marketer, my end goal is not the highest possible rankings; it is the highest possible traffic, conversions and revenue (however you define “success” for your business).
It is something we tend to forget because search engine limitations of the past have trained us to think of rankings and traffic/revenue/conversions as synonymous. That’s not the case and hasn’t been for a while — and smart marketers know that.
Keeping your 2014 roadmap in mind, ask these 3 questions when thinking about where structured data markup fits in:
1. Will it improve the user experience and interaction with my brand?
The answer is a resounding YES. While structured data markup on your page is not visible to visitors, the rich snippets that markup provides in the SERPs allows for a much more engaging experience for users.
Compare the results below:
Vs.
This is a great example of markup used to provide users with a richer experience. Being able to see the image, rating and reviews at a quick glance, without having to click through or read lengthy sentences, is a big plus. Regardless of its ranking in the SERPs, consider how this rich listing might stand out from the higher-ranking competition.
2. Is it aligning with how search engines will handle searches and search results in the future?
You guessed it; the answer is YES.
The old format of search results — as an ordered list of progressively less relevant sites — is fundamentally flawed, a result of decade-old limitations that search engines are striving to surpass. Google has already made great progress in improving the ordered list format from one based on just keyword matches to one that accounts for diversity of opinion and sentiment, freshness, personalization, localization and other factors.
Semantic search is the pursuit of helping respond to both implicit and explicit queries based on the meaning behind the queries — the challenge of getting users from a question to an answer not only with fewer clicks or searches, but in many cases, without a click at all.
Google’s knowledge graph, instant answers, and Google Now are great examples of the future of the searching experience. With these technologies, relevant information is available based on the implicit (behaviorally- or environmentally-based) or explicit (a typed or voice search) query. Search engines return the right answers — not just a list of links to choose from. By using structured markup, you can help the search engines better understand how your content provides a solution to a query now and as it evolves in the future.
3. Will it help improve my bottom line?
Well, okay… for this one, I will say, “It depends.” If you’re doing things correctly on your site as far as converting visitors and you have decent rankings (meaning, you have the fundamentals in place to actually warrant a ranking on the top couple of pages), structured markup will most definitely help improve your click-through-rate — your share of the clicks from the search results page.
Rich snippets (driven by structured data markup) have a tremendous impact on the click-through-rate in listings. In fact, at SMX Advanced, I had the honor of presenting on a Google+ Authorship test where we saw a 2x lift in clicks for a blog post with author markup compared to one without.
2x Lift in Traffic with Authorship Markup!If you have fundamental technical or content issues on your site — missing page titles, broken links, duplicate content — your focus should be there. Your site must be in order before you can participate effectively in the changing search experience.
So what are you waiting for? Your existing digital assets — videos, reviews, products, events, local business information — can be working harder for you if you provide search engines a little help in understanding them. Make sure semantic markup is part of your roadmap for 2014, because you can bet it is for your competitors!
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: All Things SEO Column | Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Schema.org | Search Marketing | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | SEO: GeneralSEO services are usually purchased by companies seeking help with placement into search engines online. One company has now added white label SEO services to help provide a way to resell company services to other industries. The http://ezranker.com/ website is now featuring these white label search engine marketing services online.
The concept of providing this new service is to help more companies expand the solutions that can be offered to partner companies. Many companies perform services to help existing companies that can include marketing and consulting. These white label business services are now popular in the marketing industry.
"Some marketers prefer to be behind the scenes and work for many different companies without giving up resources to partner companies in the U.S.," said a marketer for the EZRanker.com company.
The changeover to these new services is part of a 2013 expansion that started earlier this year when Google released it latest algorithm updates. Because these updates help to change the marketing community, new ways to help increase annual profits have been established by the EZ Ranker company.
"The resale opportunities that are offered through the SEO white label services are designed to earn more income for the EZ Ranker company and clients," the marketer included.
Apart from the issuance of new SEO services, a change was made recently to the platform that helps monitor rankings and other success of marketing packages. A results package is now included for all clients that use the EZ Ranker company.
No payment for company services is required if rankings are not as desired when hiring the company staff to perform national or local search engine optimization. More information about these changes is available direct on the company homepage.
About EZRanker.com
The EZRanker.com company offers solutions to business owners in all industries for ranking websites in the top search engines in the world. This company has added to its existing services this year by increasing the results that are expected by clients. The EZRanker.com company website provides simple review tools online that help any person interested in hiring the company services to receive a complimentary professional SEO review online. The company staff provide email and phone assistance for all clients who request direct help or additional information.
View the original article here
Source: SEO
SEO services are usually purchased by companies seeking help with placement into search engines online. One company has now added white label SEO services to help provide a way to resell company services to other industries. The http://ezranker.com/ website is now featuring these white label search engine marketing services online.
The concept of providing this new service is to help more companies expand the solutions that can be offered to partner companies. Many companies perform services to help existing companies that can include marketing and consulting. These white label business services are now popular in the marketing industry.
"Some marketers prefer to be behind the scenes and work for many different companies without giving up resources to partner companies in the U.S.," said a marketer for the EZRanker.com company.
The changeover to these new services is part of a 2013 expansion that started earlier this year when Google released it latest algorithm updates. Because these updates help to change the marketing community, new ways to help increase annual profits have been established by the EZ Ranker company.
"The resale opportunities that are offered through the SEO white label services are designed to earn more income for the EZ Ranker company and clients," the marketer included.
Apart from the issuance of new SEO services, a change was made recently to the platform that helps monitor rankings and other success of marketing packages. A results package is now included for all clients that use the EZ Ranker company.
No payment for company services is required if rankings are not as desired when hiring the company staff to perform national or local search engine optimization. More information about these changes is available direct on the company homepage.
About EZRanker.com
The EZRanker.com company offers solutions to business owners in all industries for ranking websites in the top search engines in the world. This company has added to its existing services this year by increasing the results that are expected by clients. The EZRanker.com company website provides simple review tools online that help any person interested in hiring the company services to receive a complimentary professional SEO review online. The company staff provide email and phone assistance for all clients who request direct help or additional information.
When I first tell clients that SEO can double online sales for consumer e-commerce retailers, they are skeptical. But not after I demonstrate how I've done it for Norwegian e-shops using 8 effective SEO tips.
It sounds unrealistic — but isn't. E-commerce SEO and conversion rate optimization can double your traffic and sales. When I show them proof, my prospective clients have many questions about generating more traffic, boosting conversions, increasing sales, engaging buyers and turning them into fans. Here are the most popular questions — and my answers.
It depends on several factors, but here's what I recommend.
Leave the pages up. If the items will be in stock later, leave pages up just the way they are. Don't delete, hide or replace them. Don't add another product to them or redirect visitors to other pages.
Offer alternative items. If specific products are sold out, offer highly relevant alternatives through widgets on the site. Some examples:
Same product in other colorsNewer models or versionsIdentical products from other brandsOther products in the same category that match in quality and priceYou're providing customers a great service and they'll appreciate it. It also helps search engines find relevant pages and understand your site structure better.
Inform users when it will return. Always offer an expected date when the product will be back in stock so visitors will know when to come back and buy.
Offer to backorder the product. Let them order and promise to have it sent out to them as soon as fresh supplies arrive. Prospective buyers who really want the product won't mind waiting a few extra days for it.
Soften the blow. Provide consolation by offering them some benefit, like a price reduction when fresh stocks arrive. This may keep them interested in buying later.
All e-commerce websites have products that will never come back, like consumer electronics or fashion clothing stores that constantly replace products with newer models and styles.
Many e-commerce websites delete the pages and take no further action. From an SEO perspective, this is bad. You lose SEO value, and people who bookmarked the URL will get an error message.
The most appropriate solution will depend on many things.
Permanently 301 redirect expired product URLs. If the expired product is replaced by a newer model, using a 301 permanent redirect from the older page to the newer model's URL tells Google you want this page ranked instead. Your SEO value will be retained.Redirect to parent category. The underlying intent is to solve a visitor's problem. If you have other relevant products that serve the same purpose as the expired item, you can direct visitors to the parent category.Permanently delete the expired product's pages, content and URLs. When you have no closely related products to the one that's expired, you may choose to delete the page completely using a 410 status code (gone) which notifies Google that the page has been permanently removed and will never return.Reuse URLs. If you sell generic products where technical specifications and model numbers are not relevant, you could reuse your URLs. That way you will preserve the page's authority and increase your chances of ranking on Google.Some items deserve to live on. Certain products may have informational value for existing customers or others wanting to research it. Leave these pages intact. Previous buyers can get information, help and service through these pages.Aim to strengthen the product categories. Focus on product categories and link seasonal products to them with breadcrumbs and links in the descriptions on the product pages. Optimize your most important product pages with the greatest potential and spend the rest of your SEO budget to strengthen product categories.
If you're launching a popular product and know there will be a big demand for it, add a "coming soon" page in the URL structure and offer unique content, launch notifications and pre-order forms. Integrate social media into this page and warm up prospects with user generated content.
With annual releases that you know will be replaced annually, simply add the year in the URL like this: website.com/category-sub-category/product-name-2012/ and 301 redirect it to the website.com/category-sub-category/product-name-2013/ version when the new version replaces it.
Good information architecture, website structure and internal link architecture are critical to rank new product pages well. Link categories from your home page, and your product pages from the category levels. This will ensure that Google finds, crawls and indexes your content fast. Also link to them from their parent category pages.
Optimize your website theme so that new products are always presented on your home page where they'll get found and indexed. A good internal link architecture will get your new product pages indexed and ranked quickly.
With all the challenges of running an e-commerce enterprise, few businesses think about unique content on product pages. Many pull product information from a database, leading to duplicate content problems.
Some pages have little more than a product photo. This leaves the search engines with no way to understand what this page is about, how it relates to other pages on your site, and how relevant it is for search users.
Add content for your most popular products. Start by identifying your best-selling and most popular product pages using Web analytics tools and then updating them with content manually.Strengthen your product categories. You can't produce text for 100,000 different products. Instead, focus your SEO on strengthening the products' parent category. Improve internal link architecture, breadcrumbs, and add relevant products to feed the search bots and teach them what your site is about.Add user generated content. It can effectively differentiate your product pages from other duplicates on the Web. Social media works well. Endorsements and reviews from happy users or customers will not only enhance your SEO campaign but also boost sales conversions.Google doesn't like duplicate content. Reprinting product descriptions from manufacturers is duplicate content. But large e-commerce websites cannot rewrite all product descriptions and specifications.
You can get around this by adding unique content like user-generated comments and reviews around it. Invite user comments. Integrate social networking. Let users tell their stories. Happy customers will serve as your marketing helpers.
Add content to product pages. Raise the quality and uniqueness of your content by personalizing it to solve your users' problems. Add information, images, video or suggestions to your content.Add a "psychology" layer to your content. Typical product descriptions are dull and technical. People, however, buy on emotion and feelings. Bring your product descriptions to life by telling a story.Some products are almost identical but exist in different colors or sizes. If not handled right, listing them can be considered duplicate content, which causes bad rankings and cannibalization between the different product variants. Products may rank for the wrong keywords (blue jeans rank for searches on red jeans). Adam Audette goes deeper into the nuances in this excellent report.
Review your website and you might find many products that may sell better if ranked for the right keywords.
Next to the home page, category pages are the most powerful and popular ones.
Treat category pages as individual home pages. Look at your categories as silos or niches that contain closely related product pages.Add content to your category pages. You'll find some excellent tips in this article.Build deep-links to product categories. Guest blogging, content marketing and even paid ads work well, as does social media.Tag socially shared content. Be strategic about sharing links on Google Plus, Twitter and other networks. Be specific with your tags.Take charge of what's being shown/presented. Design category pages to provide search engines and users the best service.Use search-friendly URLs. This often gets quick results because you are giving the search engines strong hints about what this URL is about while giving visitors help and valuable information — just make sure to avoid keyword stuffing. The most effective URL structure for category pages (and product pages) is:Category Page: Website.com/category/Sub-category page: Website.com/category/sub-category/Product page: website.com/category-sub-category/product-name/Internal link building helps with SEO and rankings. But to achieve better results, you need link architecture, not just "link building." Internal linking is not all about search engine spiders. User friendliness also matters. Creating a solid internal link architecture needs planning and takes time.
Offer category level navigation. This makes it easier for your users to get an overview of what they will find in the subcategories and pages. Strive to keep things contextually relevant.Link to category-level relevant products. Look at this from a human perspective by taking intent and needs into consideration, but also optimize for the right keywords.Use breadcrumbs on all pages and category pages. This ensures that users and Google can navigate up one level to a parent category.Don't shy away from user-generated content — unless you're afraid of honest opinions about your products and services. There are two obvious SEO benefits from user generated content:
Better conversion rates and salesThe unique content ranks higher and provides "freshness"Integrated into your product pages, user generated content can enliven your site. Good reviews boost sales conversion. Users become part of a happy community. Prospective buyers see vibrant activity which convinces them to buy more easily.
Build a "community" of happy users. Publish buyer testimonials and reviews. Share blog posts from your happy customers. Use excerpts from a positive review to convince visitors that they can trust you — trust is king and social media helps you showcase it effectively.Use Schema.org. Schema.org review markup lets you get stars beside your listing in the SERPs from individual product pages, and this affects click-through rates.Integrate social media on product pages. Instagram, Facebook comments, Pinterest pins and Google +1s can be integrated into your site to present social proof. Post photos of happy buyers using your product.The "new SEO" requires that you think about the psychology of your visitors more than the technology of your website.
Web design isn't just about visual appeal. You need a specialist e-commerce Web designer who's experienced and will work as a team with your SEO consultant, analyst, conversion rate optimizer and others. You must give them space and budgets to act as experts.
When your website design and information architecture work in tandem, with no pages/URLs breaking out of the structure, you'll boost the entire site every time you publish a new product page and ensure early crawling by search spiders. Good design and content along with a pleasant visitor experience will generate more sales.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. SEO must be baked into the business/website early in the planning phase, before you even start working on your wireframes and design process — not after the site is launched. Making awesome category/section templates and having product pages promote them with internal links is very effective.SEO for e-commerce websites is different from traditional SEO. E-commerce SEO requires a consultant skilled in multiple disciplines, with a deep understanding of human psychology, conversion rate optimization, analytics, Web design & development, social media marketing and communication, copywriting, economy, usability and user experience. The best e-commerce SEO specialists also have deep insight and understanding of commerce and how a retail business functions.E-commerce Web design is never "finished." It's a continuous process of A/B testing to hunt down the best performing variations. The right "tools" are important, but the best consultant or company is more important. An expensive consultant is not expensive if she can generate many more sales than a "cheap" one.Presenting relevant related items on product pages can boost sales. Meta data from your PIM ensures that all items presented are relevant, personalized and in stock. Your Web designer and developers must also focus on internal link architecture.
Be relevant. If visitors arrive on a product page for the latest Apple iPhone, you should also suggest other relevant products, based on the cost, quality and persona of this buyer. The latest Google Nexus might be a similar product, but a loyal Apple acolyte may never buy it anyway! Measure and optimize product suggestions.Location or placement. Let the product featured on the page stand out and shine. Give it space. Don't clutter it up with other suggestions. Don't waste your best location on products that don't sell and are not popular.It's shocking that experts optimizing a site for Google search don't optimize for their own internal search engine on e-commerce websites! That's often because they overlook or underestimate the role of internal search, losing sales. People searching with misspellings, synonyms, hyphenation or spacing errors are not taken to the appropriate product pages. They should be.
Enable tracking of your site search. Use tools which allow you to see keywords people are searching for within your site, and calculate the revenue they generate.Count popular searches. They can mean your product is popular and can be profitable. They may also indicate that people are not finding what they came to your site for!Use a tool like Crazy Egg to track clicks and see how people behave on your home page, important category pages and on product pages.Think of your site search results pages as "landing pages." The search results should be relevant and help users solve their problems. Make sure you "noindex" your search results.Include site search in your keyword research. Analyze what your visitors are searching for to find new product ideas, locate potential areas for improvements, identify popular products, and overcome problems with search and usability.Test your site search and fix errors. Type some of the keywords you've uncovered into your internal search and see what they find as a result. When you fix whatever is broken, sales will shoot up!Optimize internal search. Make sure every internal search finds the right product. This requires tweaking meta-data within your e-commerce solution. By handling this through meta-data, you won't create pages loaded with incorrect or misspelled words.The quality of your pictures, photos and videos will influence how visitors feel about your product. Never underestimate the value of making prospective buyers feel the benefits of your product.
Interesting pictures get shared on Pinterest and social networks. Getting users to tag and comment on photos also makes your content unique. Your brand grows stronger as word of mouth spreads. With optimized images, you can even pull in more traffic from Google image search.
Use high-quality pictures. Get photographs that create an atmosphere, that make prospects feel something. Those will make more sales. Though expensive, it's a good investment for your best products. Video can work even better.Optimize your images. File name, alt text, caption, etc., should be short yet descriptive. These are opportunities to provide search engines with clues as to what your image content is.A/B-test options. Try one picture against another to see which gives better conversion rates.Specify the canonical URL in the HTTP header of the product page for an item on sale. This tells Google it's a duplicate of another URL, and to rank the unique version of the page, not this one.
Mobile is too important to ignore in your e-commerce SEO strategy. An informal survey my colleague Kenneth Gvein ran for our e-commerce customers at Metronet and Vaimo Norway found that clients had 2 to 3 times higher growth rate on mobile e-commerce. Go mobile — or go home!
Offer desktop versions of all URLs. Some users prefer the standard Web version, even on mobile. Offer the option to switch between versions. Don't return them to the home page like many e-commerce websites do.
Your customers are worried about online security — with good reason. They put their identity and financial data in your hands. You must reassure them that it's safe.
Leave visual clues. Display logos and text certifying that you comply with security standards. Show them your SSL/Visa/other security and encryption standards or certificates. Tell them that shopping at your e-commerce website is 100% safe. This boosts conversions.
Many e-tailers hide this information at the bottom of a page, or simply take it for granted. Don't make that mistake.
1. Periodic SEO analysis: SEO is not static, nor is your e-commerce website. Your site and code will change. A developer may, with the best intent at heart, fix one problem but create another. Use a strategic SEO framework to ensure that everything is in sync with your economic and strategic goals.
2. Use Google Webmaster Tools: This free tool helps webmasters find and fix vexing SEO problems. Establish a routine in which you:
Look for 404 errors, soft 404's and other problemsSee how your website, products and pages are performing on the SERPsNotice popular keywords and phrases, popular pages and moreI recommend integrating Google Webmaster Tools, Google AdWords and Google Analytics to get access to valuable information for free.
3. Take action: Just monitoring data isn't enough. You must identify the actionable items to keep improving. Know what to look for and why. Spot problems with indexing, duplicate content, manual penalties from Google and more. Fix the problems promptly.
4. Invest in SEO tools: Tools like Moz, Search Metrics, Raven SEO Tools, Deep Crawl and others help you to identify problems and offer suggestions to fix them. Set up actionable reporting. Establish routines to address problems. Each tool has unique advantages. As a consultant, I recommend using a combination of tools for e-commerce SEO.
5. Do manual (sample) testing: Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify problems with pages and sections of your e-commerce website. Pick one product segment that is important to you and perform an analysis within specific categories and subcategories. Often you'll track down site-wide problems caused by your CMS that can be quickly fixed.
6. Data analysis is the new gold: Everything you do can be done better, but you don't have the resources to do it all. You need analysis to help prioritize areas for improvement. Build dashboards containing actionable information.
7. Take the mobile revolution seriously: Mobile devices are growing fast. Delays in developing your mobile site can kill your online business. What experience are you giving mobile users and how can you improve?
It's not possible to cover everything about SEO for e-commerce sites in one article. The advice above has helped many e-commerce websites increase sales and revenue by large multiples, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
If you have any more tips or advice you think our other readers should know about, please add them as a comment to this post. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: All Things SEO Column | Channel: SEOView the original article here
Source: SEO
When I first tell clients that SEO can double online sales for consumer e-commerce retailers, they are skeptical. But not after I demonstrate how I’ve done it for Norwegian e-shops using 8 effective SEO tips.
It sounds unrealistic — but isn’t. E-commerce SEO and conversion rate optimization can double your traffic and sales. When I show them proof, my prospective clients have many questions about generating more traffic, boosting conversions, increasing sales, engaging buyers and turning them into fans. Here are the most popular questions — and my answers.
It depends on several factors, but here’s what I recommend.
Leave the pages up. If the items will be in stock later, leave pages up just the way they are. Don’t delete, hide or replace them. Don’t add another product to them or redirect visitors to other pages.
Offer alternative items. If specific products are sold out, offer highly relevant alternatives through widgets on the site. Some examples:
Same product in other colorsNewer models or versionsIdentical products from other brandsOther products in the same category that match in quality and priceYou’re providing customers a great service and they’ll appreciate it. It also helps search engines find relevant pages and understand your site structure better.
Inform users when it will return. Always offer an expected date when the product will be back in stock so visitors will know when to come back and buy.
Offer to backorder the product. Let them order and promise to have it sent out to them as soon as fresh supplies arrive. Prospective buyers who really want the product won’t mind waiting a few extra days for it.
Soften the blow. Provide consolation by offering them some benefit, like a price reduction when fresh stocks arrive. This may keep them interested in buying later.
All e-commerce websites have products that will never come back, like consumer electronics or fashion clothing stores that constantly replace products with newer models and styles.
Many e-commerce websites delete the pages and take no further action. From an SEO perspective, this is bad. You lose SEO value, and people who bookmarked the URL will get an error message.
The most appropriate solution will depend on many things.
Permanently 301 redirect expired product URLs. If the expired product is replaced by a newer model, using a 301 permanent redirect from the older page to the newer model’s URL tells Google you want this page ranked instead. Your SEO value will be retained.Redirect to parent category. The underlying intent is to solve a visitor’s problem. If you have other relevant products that serve the same purpose as the expired item, you can direct visitors to the parent category.Permanently delete the expired product’s pages, content and URLs. When you have no closely related products to the one that’s expired, you may choose to delete the page completely using a 410 status code (gone) which notifies Google that the page has been permanently removed and will never return.Reuse URLs. If you sell generic products where technical specifications and model numbers are not relevant, you could reuse your URLs. That way you will preserve the page’s authority and increase your chances of ranking on Google.Some items deserve to live on. Certain products may have informational value for existing customers or others wanting to research it. Leave these pages intact. Previous buyers can get information, help and service through these pages.Aim to strengthen the product categories. Focus on product categories and link seasonal products to them with breadcrumbs and links in the descriptions on the product pages. Optimize your most important product pages with the greatest potential and spend the rest of your SEO budget to strengthen product categories.
If you’re launching a popular product and know there will be a big demand for it, add a “coming soon” page in the URL structure and offer unique content, launch notifications and pre-order forms. Integrate social media into this page and warm up prospects with user generated content.
With annual releases that you know will be replaced annually, simply add the year in the URL like this: website.com/category-sub-category/product-name-2012/ and 301 redirect it to the website.com/category-sub-category/product-name-2013/ version when the new version replaces it.
Good information architecture, website structure and internal link architecture are critical to rank new product pages well. Link categories from your home page, and your product pages from the category levels. This will ensure that Google finds, crawls and indexes your content fast. Also link to them from their parent category pages.
Optimize your website theme so that new products are always presented on your home page where they’ll get found and indexed. A good internal link architecture will get your new product pages indexed and ranked quickly.
With all the challenges of running an e-commerce enterprise, few businesses think about unique content on product pages. Many pull product information from a database, leading to duplicate content problems.
Some pages have little more than a product photo. This leaves the search engines with no way to understand what this page is about, how it relates to other pages on your site, and how relevant it is for search users.
Add content for your most popular products. Start by identifying your best-selling and most popular product pages using Web analytics tools and then updating them with content manually.Strengthen your product categories. You can’t produce text for 100,000 different products. Instead, focus your SEO on strengthening the products’ parent category. Improve internal link architecture, breadcrumbs, and add relevant products to feed the search bots and teach them what your site is about.Add user generated content. It can effectively differentiate your product pages from other duplicates on the Web. Social media works well. Endorsements and reviews from happy users or customers will not only enhance your SEO campaign but also boost sales conversions.Google doesn’t like duplicate content. Reprinting product descriptions from manufacturers is duplicate content. But large e-commerce websites cannot rewrite all product descriptions and specifications.
You can get around this by adding unique content like user-generated comments and reviews around it. Invite user comments. Integrate social networking. Let users tell their stories. Happy customers will serve as your marketing helpers.
Add content to product pages. Raise the quality and uniqueness of your content by personalizing it to solve your users’ problems. Add information, images, video or suggestions to your content.Add a “psychology” layer to your content. Typical product descriptions are dull and technical. People, however, buy on emotion and feelings. Bring your product descriptions to life by telling a story.Some products are almost identical but exist in different colors or sizes. If not handled right, listing them can be considered duplicate content, which causes bad rankings and cannibalization between the different product variants. Products may rank for the wrong keywords (blue jeans rank for searches on red jeans). Adam Audette goes deeper into the nuances in this excellent report.
Review your website and you might find many products that may sell better if ranked for the right keywords.
Next to the home page, category pages are the most powerful and popular ones.
Treat category pages as individual home pages. Look at your categories as silos or niches that contain closely related product pages.Add content to your category pages. You’ll find some excellent tips in this article.Build deep-links to product categories. Guest blogging, content marketing and even paid ads work well, as does social media.Tag socially shared content. Be strategic about sharing links on Google Plus, Twitter and other networks. Be specific with your tags.Take charge of what’s being shown/presented. Design category pages to provide search engines and users the best service.Use search-friendly URLs. This often gets quick results because you are giving the search engines strong hints about what this URL is about while giving visitors help and valuable information — just make sure to avoid keyword stuffing. The most effective URL structure for category pages (and product pages) is:Category Page: Website.com/category/Sub-category page: Website.com/category/sub-category/Product page: website.com/category-sub-category/product-name/Internal link building helps with SEO and rankings. But to achieve better results, you need link architecture, not just “link building.” Internal linking is not all about search engine spiders. User friendliness also matters. Creating a solid internal link architecture needs planning and takes time.
Offer category level navigation. This makes it easier for your users to get an overview of what they will find in the subcategories and pages. Strive to keep things contextually relevant.Link to category-level relevant products. Look at this from a human perspective by taking intent and needs into consideration, but also optimize for the right keywords.Use breadcrumbs on all pages and category pages. This ensures that users and Google can navigate up one level to a parent category.Don’t shy away from user-generated content — unless you’re afraid of honest opinions about your products and services. There are two obvious SEO benefits from user generated content:
Better conversion rates and salesThe unique content ranks higher and provides “freshness”Integrated into your product pages, user generated content can enliven your site. Good reviews boost sales conversion. Users become part of a happy community. Prospective buyers see vibrant activity which convinces them to buy more easily.
Build a “community” of happy users. Publish buyer testimonials and reviews. Share blog posts from your happy customers. Use excerpts from a positive review to convince visitors that they can trust you — trust is king and social media helps you showcase it effectively.Use Schema.org. Schema.org review markup lets you get stars beside your listing in the SERPs from individual product pages, and this affects click-through rates.Integrate social media on product pages. Instagram, Facebook comments, Pinterest pins and Google +1s can be integrated into your site to present social proof. Post photos of happy buyers using your product.The “new SEO” requires that you think about the psychology of your visitors more than the technology of your website.
Web design isn’t just about visual appeal. You need a specialist e-commerce Web designer who’s experienced and will work as a team with your SEO consultant, analyst, conversion rate optimizer and others. You must give them space and budgets to act as experts.
When your website design and information architecture work in tandem, with no pages/URLs breaking out of the structure, you’ll boost the entire site every time you publish a new product page and ensure early crawling by search spiders. Good design and content along with a pleasant visitor experience will generate more sales.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. SEO must be baked into the business/website early in the planning phase, before you even start working on your wireframes and design process — not after the site is launched. Making awesome category/section templates and having product pages promote them with internal links is very effective.SEO for e-commerce websites is different from traditional SEO. E-commerce SEO requires a consultant skilled in multiple disciplines, with a deep understanding of human psychology, conversion rate optimization, analytics, Web design & development, social media marketing and communication, copywriting, economy, usability and user experience. The best e-commerce SEO specialists also have deep insight and understanding of commerce and how a retail business functions.E-commerce Web design is never “finished.” It’s a continuous process of A/B testing to hunt down the best performing variations. The right “tools” are important, but the best consultant or company is more important. An expensive consultant is not expensive if she can generate many more sales than a “cheap” one.Presenting relevant related items on product pages can boost sales. Meta data from your PIM ensures that all items presented are relevant, personalized and in stock. Your Web designer and developers must also focus on internal link architecture.
Be relevant. If visitors arrive on a product page for the latest Apple iPhone, you should also suggest other relevant products, based on the cost, quality and persona of this buyer. The latest Google Nexus might be a similar product, but a loyal Apple acolyte may never buy it anyway! Measure and optimize product suggestions.Location or placement. Let the product featured on the page stand out and shine. Give it space. Don’t clutter it up with other suggestions. Don’t waste your best location on products that don’t sell and are not popular.It’s shocking that experts optimizing a site for Google search don’t optimize for their own internal search engine on e-commerce websites! That’s often because they overlook or underestimate the role of internal search, losing sales. People searching with misspellings, synonyms, hyphenation or spacing errors are not taken to the appropriate product pages. They should be.
Enable tracking of your site search. Use tools which allow you to see keywords people are searching for within your site, and calculate the revenue they generate.Count popular searches. They can mean your product is popular and can be profitable. They may also indicate that people are not finding what they came to your site for!Use a tool like Crazy Egg to track clicks and see how people behave on your home page, important category pages and on product pages.Think of your site search results pages as “landing pages.” The search results should be relevant and help users solve their problems. Make sure you “noindex” your search results.Include site search in your keyword research. Analyze what your visitors are searching for to find new product ideas, locate potential areas for improvements, identify popular products, and overcome problems with search and usability.Test your site search and fix errors. Type some of the keywords you’ve uncovered into your internal search and see what they find as a result. When you fix whatever is broken, sales will shoot up!Optimize internal search. Make sure every internal search finds the right product. This requires tweaking meta-data within your e-commerce solution. By handling this through meta-data, you won’t create pages loaded with incorrect or misspelled words.The quality of your pictures, photos and videos will influence how visitors feel about your product. Never underestimate the value of making prospective buyers feel the benefits of your product.
Interesting pictures get shared on Pinterest and social networks. Getting users to tag and comment on photos also makes your content unique. Your brand grows stronger as word of mouth spreads. With optimized images, you can even pull in more traffic from Google image search.
Use high-quality pictures. Get photographs that create an atmosphere, that make prospects feel something. Those will make more sales. Though expensive, it’s a good investment for your best products. Video can work even better.Optimize your images. File name, alt text, caption, etc., should be short yet descriptive. These are opportunities to provide search engines with clues as to what your image content is.A/B-test options. Try one picture against another to see which gives better conversion rates.Specify the canonical URL in the HTTP header of the product page for an item on sale. This tells Google it’s a duplicate of another URL, and to rank the unique version of the page, not this one.
Mobile is too important to ignore in your e-commerce SEO strategy. An informal survey my colleague Kenneth Gvein ran for our e-commerce customers at Metronet and Vaimo Norway found that clients had 2 to 3 times higher growth rate on mobile e-commerce. Go mobile — or go home!
Offer desktop versions of all URLs. Some users prefer the standard Web version, even on mobile. Offer the option to switch between versions. Don’t return them to the home page like many e-commerce websites do.
Your customers are worried about online security — with good reason. They put their identity and financial data in your hands. You must reassure them that it’s safe.
Leave visual clues. Display logos and text certifying that you comply with security standards. Show them your SSL/Visa/other security and encryption standards or certificates. Tell them that shopping at your e-commerce website is 100% safe. This boosts conversions.
Many e-tailers hide this information at the bottom of a page, or simply take it for granted. Don’t make that mistake.
1. Periodic SEO analysis: SEO is not static, nor is your e-commerce website. Your site and code will change. A developer may, with the best intent at heart, fix one problem but create another. Use a strategic SEO framework to ensure that everything is in sync with your economic and strategic goals.
2. Use Google Webmaster Tools: This free tool helps webmasters find and fix vexing SEO problems. Establish a routine in which you:
Look for 404 errors, soft 404's and other problemsSee how your website, products and pages are performing on the SERPsNotice popular keywords and phrases, popular pages and moreI recommend integrating Google Webmaster Tools, Google AdWords and Google Analytics to get access to valuable information for free.
3. Take action: Just monitoring data isn’t enough. You must identify the actionable items to keep improving. Know what to look for and why. Spot problems with indexing, duplicate content, manual penalties from Google and more. Fix the problems promptly.
4. Invest in SEO tools: Tools like Moz, Search Metrics, Raven SEO Tools, Deep Crawl and others help you to identify problems and offer suggestions to fix them. Set up actionable reporting. Establish routines to address problems. Each tool has unique advantages. As a consultant, I recommend using a combination of tools for e-commerce SEO.
5. Do manual (sample) testing: Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify problems with pages and sections of your e-commerce website. Pick one product segment that is important to you and perform an analysis within specific categories and subcategories. Often you’ll track down site-wide problems caused by your CMS that can be quickly fixed.
6. Data analysis is the new gold: Everything you do can be done better, but you don’t have the resources to do it all. You need analysis to help prioritize areas for improvement. Build dashboards containing actionable information.
7. Take the mobile revolution seriously: Mobile devices are growing fast. Delays in developing your mobile site can kill your online business. What experience are you giving mobile users and how can you improve?
It’s not possible to cover everything about SEO for e-commerce sites in one article. The advice above has helped many e-commerce websites increase sales and revenue by large multiples, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
If you have any more tips or advice you think our other readers should know about, please add them as a comment to this post. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: All Things SEO Column | Channel: SEO
topseos.com has awarded SyCara as the third top SEO firm in the month of November 2013. Search marketing agencies are inspected by the independent research team at topseos.com to uncover which agencies produce the top SEO solutions. The rankings are revisited on a monthly basis based on the most recent feats of contending SEO agencies.
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About SyCara
SyCara offers their SEO software to a variety of business, SEO professionals, and agencies. The software is provided with a large number of features based on the package selected. Features include providing businesses with the ability to view competitor rankings, obtain traffic information from Google Analytics, and create branded reports. The professional version of the software also includes features allowing businesses to integrate their social media into the application while providing features which audit potential SEO issues.
About topseos.com
topseos.com is a purveyor of search engine marketing rankings. The leading ambition of topseos.com is to decide and disclose those individuals or services supplying top search engine marketing solutions available. SEO services are put through a in-depth analysis to ensure the rankings contain the absolute best services the search engine marketing industry has to offer.
To find out more about SyCara, visit:
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