Before we get to the infographic, I recommend checking out the SearchEngineJournal blog post which originally shared this infographic in contains much more information than the graphic displays, you can check out the post here.
When it comes to auditing SEO this infographic helps remind us of how complex the SEO channel can be, but at the same time it can be actioned as a list of things to do.
When proactively trying to grow your reach through SEO I think it is much easier to simplify the channel. I am surprised tools such as Google Webmaster tools, Xenu / Screaming frog didn't appear more as ways to easily complete / check significant parts of the audit but other than that, this is a well written guide you should definitely checkout.
…
Check your live preview image and messaging against competitors
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Blazen Web Marketing Analysis
On 22/09 Google announced the new version of its Instant Previews feature, which Mark Reynolds of Blazen explained when he spotted Google’s testing of the feature.
The new Google Instant Previews can be accessed from Google’s organic results and in the PPC adverts at the top, as well as in the Site Links. Mark’s video shows how it works.
[No audio]
Marketing implications of Google’s update
Google’s announcement clearly shows that this innovation is to make searching quicker (and to reduce load on it’s server?) through encouraging more use of this feature:
(more…)…
1. New pagination tags
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Source
Our commentary
A recent release from Google, these new tags are aimed at aiding the Google bot when crawling sites such as media sites (or other content rich sites) & large ecommerce websites. The new tags are to be used on the "Next", "Previous" & View All links on pages helping Google understand a paginated series of pages. This feature is particularly relevant to media sites that use the format of an article broken down into several pages (which I personally find annoying, but I know it's done to increase page views and so ad revenue).
Much like the canonical tag which is used to highlight duplicate pages on your website these new tags are aimed at helping the Googlebot index your website effectively. The two key points highlighted in the post /…
Using Google's new reports to improve both SEO and conversion
Google has been releasing tools for to help you with your website loading speed for some time now but what is classed as a fast website and does it really impact your rankings?
Google clearly take this area of website management seriously, they want users to be delivered relevant content quickly, and therefore it would make sense that they would use it as a factor in ranking your website. It's more obvious to see the impact of slow loading websites on your bounce rate than search but lets look at the tools now available to help you make sure your loading times are not affecting your rankings or site conversion.
Google Page Speed Report(s)
We reported back in August 2011 that reports are now available within Google Analytics which will give you the insights…
Part Two of a 12 part guide to Website optimisation
In Part 1, we explored how to use web analytics to benchmark performance and drive insight through data which is a theme throughout this series of in-depth articles. We continue this theme in this guide where I will look at approaches I use to review competitors. I hope you find the approaches interesting and I'll be interested to hear how they differ in the approaches and tools you use.
Competitor research is a core part of optimisation and involves studying websites that rank well for keyword targets.
While it's common to think of which keywords you should target, it's less common to research competitors in detail. But I think this is really important since each keyword and industry can be vastly different in terms of what puts a website at the top…
A new in-depth guide from Distilled
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/
Our commentary
We think this is one of one of the most useful free guides and workbooks for marketers published this year.
Particularly relevant to SEO and E-PR it's an in-depth guide from Distilled, complete with a workbook for running brainstorm sessions specifically for Linkbait ideas.
If you haven't encountered the term, linkbaiting is just a short way of describing the creation of amazing pieces of content (blogs, ebooks, info-graphics, videos etc) that are inherently valuable & that other websites, bloggers etc will want to link to. Essentially you are earning the right to get links to your website, something Seth Godin would call Permission marketing. The intern used by Distilled (interesting approach) does a fantastic job in this guide, going through the process right from the beginning in…
What are Rich Snippets and how to create them?
Rich snippets are a way of tagging specific types of content so that Search Engines and web services can use them to display additional information in search results or share to other sites.
Most Search Engines now support rich snippets and are constantly extending them as he announcement this week from Google about the new "Listings" Snippets shows.
Why use them?
Rich Snippets are still relatively new in terms of how they are been used and many websites have yet to even implement them. With the growth of HTML 5, however, they are slowly working their way into websites. This creates an opportunity for early adopters to:
Improve a users experience to your website
Improve the quality of information given to Search Engines (Product price, reviews etc are two examples)
Increased traffic through higher click-through rates
Ensure Search Engines…
8 questions to ask to help get your brand messages across in Google
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Official Google announcement on sitelinks
Folks have been discussing Google’s experiments with Google Sitelinks through August, e.g. http://www.hallam.biz/blog/2011/08/12-google-sitelinks-2011.html but yesterday we started seeing this more consistently on all Google searches and now Google has made the announcement above.
If you’re not familiar with Sitelinks, they are the listing of extra links below the brand main site description when you search on a brand name. We have a briefing on sitelinks which shows the previous simple format of just 8 links.
This example shows they now take up much more of the page with 8 to 12 alternatives and include more detailed descriptions:
Marketing implications of sitelink change
Well for almost all sites, the most important searches…
Yahoo now using Bing search results in UK and Europe
Importance: [rating=3] (Given the dominance of Google)
Recommended link: Summary of countries affected
Our commentary
The Yahoo & Bing alliance is old news from this time last year, but it is only recently that the affects of the alliance has started to make its way to the UK and Europe.
Advertisers & search businesses alike in the US have been using Bing to market on Yahoo for some time now. Any search on Yahoo UK will now display results powered by Bing.
Marketing implications - what does this mean for your SEM strategy?
It all depends. If you are a UK focussed business this shouldn't change your strategy too much, according to the latest hitwise data Yahoo & Bing between them only account for…
5 questions you should be asking about your SEO agency
At some-point most business have explored outsourcing "SEO", although recently more businesses I speak to are bringing it back in house. A recent guide from Hub Spot sparked this blog post as they have created a short guide to identifying a "Bad SEO Service" you may be interested in. You can check it out here.
While their guide is good, I think it can be distilled down even further & I would even say you should even question whether you need an SEO agency at all!
Identifying a poor SEO Agency:
Here are the questions prompted by the guide:
Q1. Do you they make unrealistic promises - "Guaranteed number one spots". Against which phrases?
Q2. Are they delivering HUGE keyword lists rather than telling you the ones to focus on. The 80-20 rule holds…
