Improving the search engine optimisation (SEO) of a website to achieve high ranking positions involves a wide range of factors, both on and off the site. The ‘off site’ factors largely revolve around links into a domain, and this has been a core factor of Google’s success since this search engine first launched over 10 years ago. It is therefore an essential element that websites can’t ignore but one that can often be hard to achieve.

Although website marketers can create a highly optimised website through a combination of factors such as page content, title tags and design, it can still be difficult to achieve good ranking positions on Google if there are few links directed at the site. This remains an important difference in Google’s search results and it will usually – but not always – follow that the better the ‘link popularity’ of a website, the better chance it will have of ranking well for its target search terms.

Link building should therefore be a core part of a search engine marketing strategy and one that needs to be developed as an ongoing strategy through many different routes. It often needs to be creative and it can be time-consuming, but the rewards in terms of higher ranking positions and more visitor traffic to a website can be immense.

A recent article on the SEOmoz.org website in the US listed what are considered to be the most important SEO factors, as voted by over 70 practitioners in the field. A section on link development listed the following top 10 factors that are considered to be vital in achieving good ranking value from links, in descending order of importance:

1. Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links – which means that links gained from other sites should use relevant keywords in the text link that relate to the content of the target page (such as Google AdWords training)
2. External Link Popularity – this reflects the overall quantity and ‘quality’ of external links into a website. Google places a strong emphasis on this issue and the quality factors are covered by some of the other points listed here.
3. Diversity of Link Sources – ideally there should be a large number of links coming from many unique root domains
4. Page-Specific ‘TrustRank’ – this indicates that a page has attracted links into it from ‘trusted’ sources, such as government (.gov) or educational (.edu) websites
5. Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity – this is essentially Google’s PageRank calculation, a complex mathematical formula based on the exchange of hyperlinks around the web
6. Topic-Specificity / Focus of External Link Sources – ideally external links to a web page should come from topically relevant pages or websites that are relevant to the target page
7. Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links – internal links within a website are also important, particularly within body content
8. Location in Information Architecture of the Site – a link from the Home Page of an external site can be much more important than one from a directory level page deep within the site
9. Internal Link Popularity – similar to item 7 above, the number and ‘quality’ of internal links within a site can be important, not just to the Home Page but to other core pages of the site
10. Quantity & Quality of ‘Nofollow’ Links to the Page – the ‘nofollow’ command within HTML code can reduce the value of inbound links (such as from blogs) but may still have a small impact on the overall link popularity of a site.

So, as can be seen from this list, there are a number of considerations when developing the link popularity of a website, such as having relevant keywords in the text of external links to a website’s page on that topic being a key factor. The quality and diversity of the links, as well as the level of trust and the PageRank of the sites upon which they are placed are also important factors.

If you would like to know more about developing a link building strategy and how the Web Marketing Workshop can help, please contact us now.

One of the features that is often overlooked within the Google Analytics service is the ‘Site Overlay’ option. This can visually display the percentage of visitors who click upon standard links that are embedded on a particular page of a website and can be a valuable source of information on the ways users are actually navigating through the site.

For example, one way that Site Overlay can be used is to visually show what percentage of visitors clicked through to the main pages linked from the website’s Home Page, or within the main navigation menu. This is a great benefit to website owners as it gives them a clear depiction of which page most of the visitors go to from the initial home page, or the primary landing pages used in a search advertising campaign. Therefore it’s instantly possible to see the most popular paths that visitors follow and the most visited pages. By hovering the mouse over the percentage box in the Site Overlay, another box appears that displays the actual number of clicks to that page and the number of conversions to a particular goal on that page.

If the link is clicked upon, the Site Overlay takes you to that next page and then displays the information according to the links from that page. It’s therefore possible to see which are the best performing links or pages in terms of click density and what the most popular route to a particular goal is, without necessarily having to set up small qualitative research groups. This information can enhance a website’s optimisation by allowing site marketers to experiment with different landing pages, layout, content and navigation routes, leading to a much more effective streamlining of visitors to converting customers.

The Site Overlay tool does have some restricted functionality, however. Currently the results are only displayed on static (as opposed to dynamic) pages that have unique links to content located elsewhere on the website. So if a page has numerous links pointing to another page, the total of clicks for all those links will be displayed in each of those site overlay boxes. Other limitations include the inability to function within frames, with URL redirects, or with Javascript or subdomain links so that in these cases the Site Overlay stats are not displayed.

Overall though, the Site Overlay is a very useful addition to a website’s analytics toolbox, and should be reviewed at least monthly. If you’d like to know more about how Google Analytics could be used to enhance your website’s performance, please contact us.

Google’s Local Business Listings are now regularly shown within the main search results if a user searches for a local business, alongside a small map. In addition, viewing results on Google Maps provides more information and additional advertising options through Google AdWords, all of which should be used by a localised business to target their potential customer base. Google is now adding new features to this service to help advertisers gain more local business.

We first covered the value of Google’s local business listings and their increasing prominence in Google’s ‘universal search results’ back in our June 2007 newsletter. The local business listings service has developed further since then and remains an important area for companies who are targeting a localised market to gain a prominent listing. Achieving a high ranking in the 10 businesses listed in Google’s main results can be difficult, particularly in a competitive market, but if searchers click through to the more detailed business listings, or search directly within Google Maps, there are additional ways to achieve visibility and to attract searchers to your website.

One of the main ways to achieve good visibility is through the use of a local business advert, which is created as part of a Google AdWords campaign. This allows advertisers to create a specific advert to appear on Google Maps searches, with a small icon, address and contact details. In addition, Google has now announced some additional new features for these adverts to help companies attract prospective customers faster and to gauge how well their adverts are performing.

The first addition is that Google’s local business ads will now feature new interactive links within the panel that is displayed for the business. These panels are designed to provide more information for users and to connect them to the business quicker with a link to their website. Now users will be able to see more information from this panel and to take additional actions, such as a “Get Directions” option, a link to “Street View”, and “Save to My Maps” which allows users to personalise their search results.

In addition, Google AdWords will also be adding a new interaction report for local business ads in the near future. This report will help advertisers to assess the activity through the local business ads and their return on investment, with such information as how many users opened the info window and clicked on each of the new interactive links. Google says that Maps users are often looking for different information than Search users so that these new interactive links and the reports should help customers connect with a business faster as well as help the advertiser understand how to better target Maps users versus Search users.

If your business could be benefitting more from a Local Business Listing on Google, contact us now for more information on this feature and we’ll be pleased to help. We can create optimised listings and Local Business Adverts to help raise your profile and improve your visibility to your target market.

The need to attract links into a website from other third-party sites is undisputed as this can be one of the most significant factors in determining ranking position - particularly on Google - but it can also be the most challenging. There are many ways that this can be achieved, but one of the most effective is through the ‘natural’ attraction of links by adding unique content to your website – so called ‘link bait’. (more…)

For some years now Google and the other main search engines have recognised the ‘nofollow’ tag as an attribute for hyperlinks between web pages and this is now commonly being used by blogs and other websites that attract user comments. It’s therefore an important consideration for link building campaigns and something that needs to be checked within the source code of any page that offers potential links.

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Links are an essential but often overlooked factor when it comes to online marketing.

Whether your website is just starting out, or even if it has some maturity, it’s well worth regularly reviewing the state of your link health. Having a strong profile of quality, relevant inbound links will do wonders for your visibility, helping you to rank well in search engine results as well as driving traffic directly to your site.

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At the end of 2006, the Open Directory (DMOZ) suffered a major server crash which, combined with insufficient backup data, resulted in new submissions being suspended for at least 6 weeks. The site is now back functioning again but questions are being raised about the future of this directory.

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The number and quality of links pointing to a website is a key factor that search engines take into account when ranking websites. It is challenging for business websites to build these inbound links, and in the past many have looked to submitting to ‘directory’ type websites, or building reciprocal links with others.

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As the use of search engines becomes more common, they are increasingly taking the role of online ‘Yellow Pages’ directories, helping users find local products or services. If your business targets a specific town or region, how can you make sure that your site is found in these results through natural or PPC listings? Also, how can you minimise the amount of paid traffic to your website from people who are in the wrong location?

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Most of you are probably aware that inbound links to a website can generate extra visitors. However, relevant inbound links from other popular websites are also an important factor used by major search engines to determine a site’s position in their results lists.

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