Question: A lot of your posts on SEO seem to be aimed at the expert, do you have something on the basics of SEO?
Answer: That's a fair comment, we have written our 7 Steps guide to SEO for Expert members to be easy to follow for marketers less familiar with SEO. Here's a round up of some of the best guides introducing the basics of SEO.
1. The Google SEO Starter Guide PDF
Best to go straight to the Horses Mouth - this is a great intro with examples, although published in 2008 and not updated since. It underemphasises the importance of backlinks - links from other sites.
Google also a short practical video to SEO for startups.
2. Google How It Works
This is a great visual guide which I've started using when talking to non-search specialists in training - definitely not for SEOs... Nice visuals though.
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If you noticed significant changes to your organic traffic from Google through May this could be the result of a major algorithmic change in Google. It's reputed to impact longer tail queries, i.e. less popular searches typically of 3+ keywords in the search keyphrase often related to specific product queries in commercial sites. But the analysis of my site later in this post suggests it affects shorter terms too.
As always, Search Engine Land has a good backgrounder on the update and this is a useful agency perspective on implications for different site types.
I also recommend viewing this update from Google - they produce many videos for Webmaster Tools these days, but this is a must-watch for anyone involved in managing site traffic:
In the video, Google head…
Update to keyword ranking tool May 2010
Google has now updated this tool for showing keyword positions in response to user feedback renaming it the "Search Query" tool. The main changes are:
Average position now shown to avoid need for drilldown
You can "Star" the target keyphrases most relevant to you to monitor on a separate tab
Original post
Wow, this is amazingly useful for reviewing the effectiveness of your SEO AND your marketing messages within the Google SERPs.
On April 14 Google has introduced a new facility within Google Webmaster Tools to help search marketers review click through rates within the natural search listings.
Here is an example for a "brand search" on my name:
So if you, or your agency aren't signed up to Google Webmaster Tools, then…
In my interview with SEO specialist Kevin Morley of Internet marketing agency Search Path we discuss an interesting perspective on link-building.
For SEO success is competitive markets (aren't they all?) your approach to linkbuilding simply has to be better than the competitors. To review how you successful you are, I recommend using one of the two most established link-building tools Majestic SEO or Linkscape which I covered in my interview with on how to compare link analysis tools.
Of course quality of links is more important than quantity when it comes to links, but as a starting point to benchmark against competitors, try this backlink history comparison tool.
Q1. What is value added link building?
The techniques used to increase the number of inbound links pointing…
Tools to determine target keywords are well-established. But new tools - see Market Potential / Market Demand Tools - provide a lot more analysis of market potential or customer demand for products than the established software/systems. Many of these query the excellent Google research database available direct from Google as the Googlr Keyword Tool or Google Insights for Search.
For ideas on using these analysis tools - see this series on Keyphrase analysis by James Gurd.
Most popular keyphrase analysis tools
The best known and longest established keyword tools are:
Google Keyword Planner - Formerly the Google Keyword Tool
Google Trends - good for geographic variation and time series
UberSuggest - Excellent tool for international evaluation
Word Tracker US and UK versions available
Keyword Discovery US and UK versions available
Google Analytics SEO: Queries tool and Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries
Market Potential / Market Demand Tools
These are the newcomers…
Question.
So, we know title tags and alt attributes are good to have for keyword density etc ... but are they as good as body text? Is it still better for SEO to provide some actual body text that uses the words - and include image based keywords as well? Any thoughts ... ?
Answer.
Success in SEO is down to knowing the ranking factors that matter most to the search engines and then implementing in a way that the site is still usable for human audiences "€“ we need to avoid SEOO "€“ search engine over-optimization.
Of the factors you mention, their order of importance is <title> tag (keep them them focused on 2 or 3 keyphrases only); then body copy (particularly towards the top of the document), then image tag alt attributes (these are most important when it is an image that links elsewhere).
For the other on-page factors, I would…
This month, my interview is with Dixon Jones, an SEO who has been involved with Internet marketing for as long as me as founder
and director of Search Engine Marketing Agency Receptional which was launched in 1999.
Since I last met Dixon at Search Engine Strategies, London, when I asked him for an interview he has also joined link analysis services company Majestic SEO as director, so it seemed natural to find out why and how we should best use link analysis tools, if we don't already. As well as the discussion about the marketing I recommend Q4 which looks specifically at the stages in link-analysis for SEO.
By the way, if you don't follow his advice and thoughts already, I can also recommend his SEO focused blog or Twitter
Why use a link analysis service?
Q1. Why is a specialist paid…
Post updated from August 2009 to include major changes that Google makes which will affect the way businesses rank within the natural listings of the search engines.
For 6 of the main updates from Google earlier in 2009, see my post: Google SEO updates H1 2009.
August - Google Caffeine preview live
Category: Index inclusion
What is it? According to the official Google notification of this update, Caffeine is not intended as a major update to the way Google ranks sites for search queries, rather it's an update to the indexing and retrieval architecture to
"let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions".
(more…)…
As part of my work in updating the recently published 2009 edition of the Econsultancy Best Practice Guide to SEO, and training on the Advanced SEO course it's essential I stay up-to-date by reviewing the thousands of announcements by Google and commentary by SEO bloggers.
While all SEO professionals and agencies will be doing this too, many general marketers, digital marketers don't have time for this, so in my blog category "Latest Updates on Google Marketing" I hope it's useful to catalogue the most significant changes in marketing and any actions you should take.
So, for me, these are the most significant changes in H1 2009 that Google has made which affect the natural search listings and so, SEO practice. The most important one for UK businesses is at the end. I also have a follow-up post on Google updates in Q2 2009.
Google SEO updates summary
Feb 2009: Canonical link element:
Category:…
Google tends to favour larger sites belonging to larger companies with well-known brands.
Since more authority and trust is conferred on these sites which have greater scale and more backlinks, smaller and medium businesses (SMEs) have to work harder on their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to gain prominence in the natural listings of the search engines.
But smaller businesses often have the advantage of being more nimble and dynamic, so if they can take advantage of this flexibility, how can they compete through SEO?
To help answer this question, I asked Susan Hallam, a fellow-trainer and consultant whose clients include smaller businesses. My questions covered five key areas that SMEs should review for their SEO activities:
SEO approaches SMEs can use to help them beat larger rivals in the search listings
Tips on using the Google Local Business…
