SEO impact of new Google site links

Google has begun to re test a greater number of site links in its natural search results pages. These expanded links appear when  you search for the domain name / brand name of a website. I.e., BBC

What is the change?

Google has increased the number of site links from 8 to 12 for websites in its natural results. This change is meant to increase the relevance of the site links helping Google’s surfers to find the appropriate section of a website more easily. This is why site links also contain a snippet of text and the domain name.

What is the SEO impact on websites ?

Two fold, 1 it gives companies some additional protection for is own domain name and /or brand terms in Google, as the expanded set of site links means that they take a larger proportion of the search results page.

On the second point; if you have a website which has a broadly generic name site links may push out competitor results, or your results from those search results positions.

Generally, we do not expect to see much of a difference to website SEO performance in the results pages from the new site links changes confirmed by Google as permanent. This is pretty much just an expansion in scope of the existing site links Google use in their natural search results.

We will keep an eye on the impact of site links on SEO and update our readers and clients as we know more. If you want to get access to leading edge SEO knowledge base and learning centre available to our clients please get in touch for more information.

This article was produced by: Christian – In house SEO Expert

Account Manager at Seek4Commerce, a leading London SEO Company.

Use the Google page speed tool to improve website performance

Why is page speed so important?

The primary reason page speed is for general usability. The faster loading a web page the better the performance for visitors to that page, whilst slow loading pages lead to higher bounce rates.

Google monitors website performance and bounce rates and uses this as a baseline when comparing the click through rates and bounce rates of the top competing websites for keywords and phrases. This plays a role in a websites search positions as Google is keen to improve the user experience of its surfers and this is why this is increasingly becoming a ranking factor for top search engine positions.

Google has launched a new page speed tool for webmasters that checks the website load speed of sites. Check out the tool at Google page speed lab. This new tool is an indication of the increasing importance Google is placing on webmasters producing higher quality websites.

As the search landscape evolves and the expectations of surfer’s increases online, the broader quality of websites is likely to increase in-step with search engine webmaster guidelines expansion. This means that there will be a wider scope of activities and ranking factors that developers and/or your SEO agency will need to consider as time evolves to ensure client websites rank higher in Google and other search engines.  There will therefore be an increasing direct correlation between higher quality websites and higher performance in the search engine results pages (SERP’s).

To find out more about on page SEO please call us on 0844 870 9806

This article was produced by: Steve Bernard – Ecommerce SEO Expert,

Director at Seek4Commerce, a leading London SEO Company.

How top retailers improve seasonal SEO results

Many retailers understand the importance of ranking highly for seasonal events like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mothers day etc when the event is upon them.

With up to 30% + of retail revenue in some sectors generated around the Christmas period alone ensuring that you dominate the events search terms is a primary business driver for retailers with a website. The time to act is now if you want to start benefiting later.

Christmas is here now

To truly maximize the impact of being top in Google for your top seasonal keywords at prime time then retail businesses need to start planning now for the Christmas period, and first quarter events.

Some quick tips below:

What is the sales window?

The Christmas sales window is 3 months prior to the big day meaning that SEO planning & implementation must be undertaken 6 months prior, whilst the New Years Eve event window usually starts one month before. It is important to understand the planning process to maximize the SEO outcomes during the sales window of these events.

Understand your keywords

Do thorough keyword research to identify the keywords with the highest sales value potential for your business around key events.

Build keyword research into your content strategy

Once you have identified a portfolio of keywords by sales opportunity. Create additional SEO friendly content that targets the long tail combinations and develop your universal search strategy by optimizing all elements of the content. Image, video and news pieces around the content will help you rank higher for your terms.

Identifying on a product level the keyword sales opportunities will allow you to rifle gun in sales success over the seasonal periods.

With Google increasingly applying a universal search approach to its natural rankings, the more bases covered by your optimization efforts the higher the probability of your listings being found. This can be easily evidenced by doing a product search on Google and seeing that shopping results are visible in the natural search listings.

Make best use of Google product search

Google product search is one key foundations of online retail success. It is free and highly traffic generative, for product search optimized listings it also pushes the top 2-3 listings in to the natural search results in Google increasing product ad exposure massively.

A well implemented long tail product based campaign can lead to transformational sales growth, whilst a poorly implemented campaign is money left on the table for your competitors.

Web content strategy to fit into overall communications strategy

Develop a online content strategy around developing new, fresh and SEO friendly product & sales copy that it part of the business’s overall communications strategy. Include; people from the various business work streams and ensure that document management and approvals processes do not hold up the issue of core content that could drive your websites performance at a critical time.

A leading SEO agency will be able to tap into your business’s communications strategy and content plans to help you obtain the SEO sales value from the copy you are already producing. This will save you additional time and money in executing your SEO campaigns.

This article was produced by: Steve Bernard – Ecommerce SEO Expert,

Director at Seek4Commerce, a leading London SEO Company.

Top 5 tips for multilingual international SEO

International SEO and international e-market growth can offer B2B & B2C businesses the opportunity for explosive growth. However, often an ill thought out strategy and incoherent implementation lead to frustration and wasted budgets.

Below some top tips for international SEO; to help your business avoid the main pitfalls that befalls a poor international search campaign.

1) Use the correct local search engines

Google is the main search engine in the UK but depending on your market. There may be more relevant and important local search engines.

2) Translations & localization

Translations of web copy and keywords will need to be very well done and include cultural specifics to be relevant for the local audience. An example is Portuguese spoken in Brazil and Portugal but when you take local cultural differences into account it can make a big difference to the end user.

3) Keyword research

Use search marketing specialists who can use your UK keyword model as a base for localizing keyword research in each local territory being targeted. This keyword localization work is a key element of the work to ensure that correct local phrases are being targeted to the highest sales opportunity.

4) Social Media

Social media marketing is an excellent tool; however it is used differently by the different international audiences. To maximize the impact of social media ensure that you are have localized and correctly targeted your campaigns for social media to be effective.

5) Technical international SEO

There are a lot of tactics to making sure that the technical side of an international SEO campaign is working effectively.  This includes how to set up or frame top level domains, directories, URL’s, the DNS, and where to host the website but to begin answering the how to’s you must first understand the technical/platform, and business  set up.

That’s why international SEO campaigns must always be bespoke and tailored to client’s specific situation. Because if you do not understand the platform and technical set up plus the back office works streams it is very difficult to design a best fit international SEO solution.

This article was produced by: Steve Bernard – Ecommerce SEO Expert,

Director at Seek4Commerce, a leading London SEO Company.

5 Quick SEO tips for ecommerce websites

Remove duplicate content across product pages

Many retailers fall into the trap of using the same product description across numerous product pages. However, having the same description posted across numerous pages across your websites and syndicated out via affiliates can damage the points Google attributes to your product pages.

Instead consolidate product variations into one product to ensure that maximum points can be attributed to a product.  Copying product descriptions from manufacturers or suppliers can lead to your website being damaged for content duplication. To mitigate this create unique product descriptions for all your products.

Add fresh content to your website

Regularly update your website with non product content which is linked to from your websites home page. This is great for visitors to your web store who maybe looking for articles or information on your products but also search engines who will push you up the SERP’s for having more useful things to say. One indicator of this is how often your web pages are cached by Google.

Don’t forget product SEO

It is estimated that over 80% of all web orders are generated from long tail keywords. Make sure that your product pages are optimized for Google.

4) Multi-channel search marketing

Have you ensured that you are dominating all sections of the search engine results pages?  Dominate the results for Google product search, maps, social updates, news, adwords and the natural search to put your competitors to bed.

This deeper and more proactive approach to dominating SERP’s leads to improved traffic and click through rate’s on your ads. An integrated search marketing approach can ensure e that you enjoy a much higher percentage of searches on any search result page resulting in higher sales for you not your competitors.

5) Image & video optimization

Do you have unique images and video about your products? Why not optimize video and images so that you can drive additional traffic via the Google Video & images search.  If you are an online retailer, your website is likely to be full of images – use them to gain better search rankings.

Adding the correct alt text and optimized captions can help getting your images optimized for Google image search.

This article was produced by: Steve Bernard – Ecommerce SEO Expert,

Director at Seek4Commerce, a leading London SEO Company.

The importance of a local search engine marketing presence

Local search is still an untapped market with huge opportunities for success. Many of these searches are from motivated buyers actively looking for the services that you offer.

A huge fraction of searches online are local searches. Research studies have shown that up to 60% of all internet searches are local. However, what ever the exact figure there are a lot of local searches happening 24/7 from motivated buyers. These can be hundreds, thousands or even millions happening every day, during all hours of the day non-stop. But are these searches finding you?

If you want to advertise nationally or for mail order items then be prepared to pay much larger advertiser rates and for a fight for every click. But if you are a local business with a relatively small catchment area it is a lot easier a victory. Many local businesses, including your competitors have not even heard of local search marketing. Why not steal a march on your local competitors by out competing them locally.

Is Yell Enough? or Do You Need Another Way of Generating Local Business. Local Search Can Help!

Thousands of small or medium sized regional businesses spend upward of a £1000 per a month on Yellow pages or Thompson Local book adverts, Yell web listings and other forms of paper or print advertising. But book directories have become very competitive, the sponsored advert rates are more expensive, and  fewer and fewer people are using Yellow Pages as first point of call not to mention that the searches going through directories are declining. More and more people are turning towards search engines for local searches, and with the advancement of mapping technology and integrated directory listings the search engines have quickly generated a great local search service.

If you are a regional business who has always used Yellow Pages or Thomson Local as a key driver to generate leads and you have slowly been seeing a decline in the number of the quality of the leads coming through then it maybe time to find another way of generating clients!

Seek4Commerce can help develop a tailored approach to your local search marketing strategy. We can create much deeper penetration for your business locally meaning your business is maximizing its local exposure.

Regional businesses: What is the risk of not developing local search marketing service?

• Losing out on lucrative sales from regional customers because they can’t find you
• Missing out on new channels of acquiring customers
• Waiting until your competitors are doing it before you follow suit too late
• Not taking advantage of the reduced competition in local search to build up your business quicker

What are the key advantages of developing a local search marketing presence

• Your website will be a lot more visible in the local search engine rankings
• Motivated local buyers ready and willing to buy from you
• See your average customer acquisition cost go down as your local search marketing traffic increases.
• A lot more leads from people who prefer to work with a local vendor they can visit and trust.

If you would like some more information on creating a bespoke local search marketing or SEO plan then please contact us.

Why business blogging is so valuable!

Creating a blog and regularly posting good quality content can have huge benefits for your internet marketing strategy. Clearly, the structure and type of blog website depends on your plans for your website.

If you have useful content to contribute to your industry then a blog website will allow you to establish your website as a “thought leader” in the industry. This would subsequently increase your authority in the industry which is very important from a self marketing point of view, but also provide highly valuable SEO back links from web users to your website. The increasing number of back links will increase the authority of website in the eyes of the search engine which will rank your website higher for generic keyword terms.

The trust built up through sharing knowledge establishes your businesses reputation as an expert and this can rarely achieved through direct advertising.

Below are some of the key benefits of setting up a blog.

• Increase traffic and sales revenue
• Share content and increase trust in your business reputation
• Good quality content attracts high quality links
• Blog posts attract book marking and user contributions which aid search engine optimisation.
• Blogs encourage interaction and feedback from users.
• Distribute your blog content around the web through advanced content distribution strategies.
• Create a readership base & attract new followers
• Increase your websites depth of reach and visibility online. Articles posted on blogs usually rank very well in the search engines and this tactic can generate high quality traffic.

Seek4Commerce, an expert London SEO company are experts at helping businesses set up powerful blogiing strategies that compliment their current marketing campaigns.  contact us for more information on how a powerful blog strategy can help you.

Why are directory submissions important?

Directories classify websites by category and sub categories based on relevance. The category your website falls under is based on the products or services or information that you provide.  The categories are classified by the editors of the directories.

Directories are very helpful for back links and traffic that they generate for websites. The number, quality and topical relevance can impact on a website’s performance in the search engines and for this reason directory submissions are one of the main link building tactics on the internet for search engine optimisation.

However, it is not only the number of back links but a few influencing factors such as:

• The quality of the website providing the link
• The number of links on the web page providing the link
• The topical relevance of the directory
• The keyword density of the page and the topical relevance of the link
• The keywords in the  anchor text of the link
• Whether the content is static or dynamic
• Whether the link is “follow” or “no follow” meaning that search engines can or can not index the link.
• The volume of back links
• The velocity of link building over a period of time.
• The link growth relative to your key competitors and key industry website over a period of time.

How do you know which directory websites are good to submit to?

• Check out the quality of other website listed in the directory.
• Does the category have more than 50 links a page.
• Is the directory reviewed regularly by editors?
• What is the editorial policy and terms of use?
• What is the Alexa rank of the directory
• What kind of traffic does the directory achieve
• Are any of your competitors listed in your directory

The above considerations are just a few and not an exhaustive list, but it is best to do your research before spending time and money on directory submissions.

As previously mentioned directory submissions are a key source of one way link building that can aid your online PR and drive up your keyword positions in the search engines.

However, directory submissions are one tactic in the armoury of any SEO firm. The exact mix of  link building service depends onhow competitive your niche sector is and what your competitors are doing.

Some benefits that one way directory links provide is:

• Topical one way link to your website increasing your websites authority in your sector.
• Increase in your website page rank
• Higher search engine positions for core keywords and phrases for your website = higher traffic & higher sales and/or leads.
• Direct traffic from directory links
• Greater control over your link building campaigns.

Trusted Directories:

Trusted directories are a key source of traffic and also provide authoritative back links to your website. These directories have a lot more authority in the eyes of the search engines and carry more weight than standard links. Examples of trusted directories include:

• Open Directory
• Yahoo Directory
• Business.Com
• Yell.com

Seek4Commerce are a bespoke London SEO company that builds high quality link building programmes for our clients. All our submissions are manually done to ensure the best  results for our clients after very careful research.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about how Seek4Commerce can build a powerful link building programme for you to get you listed high for your desired keywords or phrases.

Maximize the impact of social media marketing

Social Media Marketing is one of the fastest growing sectors of Internet Marketing.

Due to its growth and influence through online community and networking sites like Facebook, it is vital that businesses begin to make use of the opportunity that Social Media offers to reach and attract buyers.

Social Media is a new and difficult subject as there are many new networks, community sites and social media channels each with its own and different demographics. Creating a strategy that focuses on the groups of customers you are trying to attract is imperative to making it work. If done correctly a successful viral campaign could deliver hundreds if not thousands of visitors and leads to your business.

Understanding your denographic, where they hang out, and where they are in the buying cycle online is key to making this tactic effective delivering high quality convertible visitors.

Seek4Commerce design and implement a tailored  Social Media Marketing plan which can deliver the benefits of social media to our clients’ businesses.

If you would like to learn about how Seek4Commerce can help then please contact us for more information.

The power of long tail SEO

Implementing a strong long tail SEO strategy can help reap huge dividends for e-commerce businesses, Previous research has indicated that up to 80-90% of traffic and orders  are derived from a long tail search marketing activity.

What is Long Tail SEO?

Long tail SEO is the process of optimising longer keyword combination strings to appear higher in the search engine ranking results pages. For an e-commerce business this would mean optimising product pages, and keywords centred around those product pages.

A long tail SEO strategy can often bring faster and more impactful results than focusing on larger higher traffic generic keywords. Users are also further along the buying cycle than those that search for generic or broader and more likely to turn into customers.

Benefits

• Faster results than generic keyword SEO.
• Product or content specific search ranking
• Better qualified traffic
• Higher conversion rates
• Cheaper to implement
• Smaller need for expensive link building programmes
• Less competition = means higher rankings.

Contact Us for a no obligation discussion on how we could help you benefit from long tail search engine optimisation.

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