Google Loco Over Local

So we all know that Google has been serving results based on the location that you are searching from for some time. However, since Panda 3.3 this seems to be happening a whole lot more and it’s not just specific to organic-integrated Google places results – it’s also influencing organic in a big way.

So what does this mean?

This could prove a nuisance for SEO agencies as it will make it difficult to measure their clients search engine rankings as the location of the searcher will heavily influence their organic search engine rankings, on top of this they also have other personalised results to worry about such as the influence Google plus is having on search.

This update is not just going to help brick and mortar businesses rank well for searches carried out without a local modifier, it also seems to be helping local directory sites rank well.
While some sites have won out of this, some sites will have been hit badly. As Google confirmed, it also appears that traditional organic ranking factors will now have a much larger effect on your local results.

How can you capitalise on this?

If you are running a business with a physical address that wants to attract local customers, make sure you have the full address on your site in the same format as found on your Google places account. It may also help to use the hcard microformat.
Another thing worth doing is creating a geo-sitemap site map for your site which will serve as another indicator of your location.

Conclusion

This recent update is great from a user point of view and help them find the website that they are looking for much more quickly. It will totally change the way some users search and may have an effect on the rankings of some large directory sites depending on their niche. SEO agencies may have to rethink the way that they measure a websites ranking and give greater consideration to the geolocation of a searcher.

An affiliate program is a great way to add some extra income to your website. It can also give added gravitas to your site or business depending on what you offer and the company you are affiliated with offers. How it works is that a well established website offers other websites a commission to send them traffic and sales. In essence if you agree to an affiliate program you will be advertising the services and products of another website via your own. For each sale that is made because of referral visits from your site, you receive a predetermined fee. It can, in some cases become quite lucrative.

Of course there are some affiliate schemes, which don’t rely on purchases being made. Having visitors is enough to warrant a small fee. Each program is different so do your research and choose wisely the program that best suits your business. It is important to be an affiliate with a company that is not in direct competition with you and what you offer, however having one that compliments your business can be really helpful. For example if you are a children’s book illustrator then becoming an affiliate with a website that sells workshops and seminars on how to either, write, promote or edit children’s books would make sense. Keep in mind that people come to your site for a reason so having a likeminded connection with another site means the chances your visitors will check them out is increased. This means more potential revenue for you.

Affiliates can also be linked very successfully to blogs. If you blog about technology then why not have an affiliate partnership with a company that designs websites for example. You can even gear your posts to increase potential visits and your income. Don’t fee that having lots of affiliate relationships will bring in more money. Have a maximum of 2 very carefully considered ones to make the most of this opportunity for passive income.

With everybody using articles, directories and web portals to generate back links, there are massive opportunities for companies that have someone that is technically minded working for them.

If you are not yet submitting to software sites to get back links, you are definitely missing out.  Most of these sites have a high page rank and welcome software submissions – so there’s no begging involved.

Even if you can’t build your own software, you could write an ebook and turn it into an executable file and submit it to these kinds of sites.

Google Places – My Maps Update

Integrated into Google places results you would normally find user generated maps.  These, I feel, have an impact on the ranking of your Google places page.  This seems to have been removed, maybe to cut down on my maps manipulation?

Google Algorithm update affecting local results

Google recently rolled out an Algorithm update to help purge the internet of those evil content farms.  Getting rid of low quality content farms is obviously a good thing for searchers,  but it’s a shame seeing perfectly legitimate sites also suffer as a result.

As well as the Algorithm update to get rid of low quality content sites, there seems to have been an update to Google places results, which are usually reserved for brick and mortar businesses.

Here are a few examples of how things have changed.

Yesterday, when you done a search for ‘wedding venue scotland’, & ‘hotels scotand’  you would get results mainly pertaining to brick and mortar business, today you are getting mainly directory results.

Below are two search terms for comparison.

Wedding Venue Scotland - Old Results

Wedding Venue Scotland - New Results

The above results are also similar to when you do a search for ‘hotels scotland’, again the top results not being brick and mortar companies, but instead, directory sites.

What does this mean?

This means that brick and mortar companies are going to suffer, and those that had worked there way to the top of the places results will see a drop in traffic.  The websites that are benefiting from this, at the moment, seem to be directory sites.  Today I have also noticed review sites being listed as brick and mortar businesses – this just doesn’t seem right as I feel it should be actual companies benefiting from Google places.  It seems illogical that Google would want to list directory sites, as surely they would want you to find companies via their own directory(Google), in the quickest time possible.

Gordon Campbell

Online Marketing and SEO Glasgow

SEO Tips & Techniques to Increase your Website Ranking

Writing this post I am assuming that you have already done your keyword research, analysed the competition and have also committed to a good link building strategy.  On page SEO is a cog in the larger machine, albeit a very important cog, and should have a good amount of attention placed on it.

It is important at this point that you are aware of your target keywords, to begin with it is probably a good idea to focus on 1 or 2 keywords per page of your website – remember you don’t have to optimise the home page with every keyword that you want to target, other pages of the website can be used for different keywords.

For example – www.mynewamazingseowebsite.com can be targeted for the keywords internet marketing and online marketing and www.mynewsamazingseowebsite.com/SEOcan be targeted using different keywords such as SEO analysis and SEO advice.

Important on page factors

Title Tag – Your title tag is a very important factor when it comes to SEO, it tells the search engine robots what your site is about and it is also displayed in the search engine ranking page(SERP), so it is very important that it is optimised for the search engine, but also optimised for the target customer.  An enticing title is very important, it’s better to rank second with an enticing title than rank first for something that nobody will ever click.  Try to include both keywords in the title without it looking unnatural  and also limit it to 65 characters in length, including spaces.

Meta Description – Again, keep it short, limit it to about 150 characters as Google only shows around that amount on their SERP.  The meta description also has to be keyword rich without it sounding unnatural.  The most important thing here is that you get someone to click through so make sure you focus on this from a sales point of view, rather than just a SEO perspective.

Content – Your page heading should be in H1 or  bold tags, and it would be a good idea to make it the same as your page title,  this is not only good for aesthetic reasons, but also good from an SEO point of view as the search engine gives this a lot of weight.   For subheadings you can use H2 tags as they also seem to earn you extra brownie points from the search engines.  Don’t overdo this as you may get a penalty for trying to over optimise.  Content should be relevant to the keywords, no point trying to optimise for Martial Arts and then talking about Boats, the search engines wont like this and neither will the people checking out your website – a lot of SEO is common sense.  Make sure you use your chosen keywords within the main content of the site, you can make these keywords bold or italic*, but not just for SEO purposes, only use them if you genuinely want the word to stand out to the reader.

Contextual Links – You can use one page of your website to optimise other pages of the website(how good is that!?).  To do this you need to use contextual links with the appropriate anchor text.  For example, if the subject of ‘SEO Analysis’ comes up, and you have a page within your site that you are optimising for that keyword, then create a link using the anchor text’ SEO Analysis’.

Alt Tags – If you are putting pictures on your site, make sure that you use appropriate alt tags for the picture.  The alt tags don’t have to be your chosen keywords, it can also be words relating to your keywords.  For example if you are working on your page that you are optimising for ‘Internet Marketing’  and you have a picture of a man working at a computer, you could have the Alt Tag ‘ Internet Marketer hard at work optimising a website’.

Video - Having a video on your site can be a great method of increasing your search engine ranking.   There are two reasons for this – the first is that it keeps people on your site for longer and creates a better user experience – the other is because you can create a link from Youtube to your site, and as this is a high authority site, it gives you some nice SEO juice.

Domain Name – A keyword rich domain name can be a great way to boost your search engine ranking, but unfortunately, these can be hard to come by.  Another way to boost your search engine ranking is having keyword rich URL’s, for example if you have a page of your site that is related to SEO analysis and one of your keywords is SEO analysis, the URL could bewww.myamazingnewseowebsite.com/seo-analysis.

Gordon Campbell

Online Marketing Executive

http://www.360innovate.co.uk/service/search-engine-optimisation/