Keyword Selection For Search Engine Optimization - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

Search Engine Optimization really isn’t rocket science but there is a lot to know and consider when optimizing one’s website.

At the forefront is the understanding of keywords/keyword phrases and what affect they have on your ability to get targeted website traffic.

What is a keyword/keyword phrase anyway?

It’s the word, or words, that internet users are typing in when they conduct an internet search. Fortunately for us, there are a variety of tools that keep track of this incredibly valuable data.

With that understood, here are some tips to help you choose the right keywords for your website… keywords that will draw the specific type of visitors you are looking for.

Keyword tools:
There are a variety of keyword tools, both free and paid. Unless you are an SEO professional, you’ll probably want to use the free tool provided by Google.

To find it, simply conduct a search on Google for the term (aka keyword phrase), “Google Keyword Tool.” As Google has done its job to optimize for this keyword phrase, you’ll find it to be the first “organic” listing on page one of the results.

Search Volume:
Search volume is an indicator that tells you how many times a particular keyword phrase is searched upon. The data is “search engine specific” so you will find that the numbers differ depending on which search engine’s data you are looking at.

It’s important to note that Google now tracks “local” and “global” search volume separately and can even tell you how frequently someone is searching the term with a mobile device.

Most SEO Consultants disagree as to the accuracy of the data so you should consider the data to be more “comparative” than accurate. For example, if “keyword phrase #1” is said to get 3,000 searches per month and “keyword phrase #2” is said to get 500, it’s safe to say that keyword phrase #1 is more searched upon.

Competition:
It’s vital to remember that most search engines only show ten “organic” listings on any page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Because of this, you are competing with the websites/web pages that are already ranked for the keyword phrase(s) you have chosen.

In order to get your web page listed on “page one” for a particular keyword phrase, you are going to have to outperform one of your competitors.

There are many factors to consider when gauging competition but the main ones include:

• On-page Optimization – In other words, how well have they optimized their page around the keyword phrase(s) they are ranking for.
• Age of the domain – Generally speaking, the older the domain, the better.
• Domain extension – Although you can improve the SEO of any website, those with a .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov or a country specific domain tend to rank better than those with other extensions.
• Inbound links – The amount of links the page has from other websites as well as those coming from other pages of the site itself.

Intent:
Before finalizing your keyword list, it’s best to see if you can get into the mind of the person conducting the search. While your keyword research will tell you what keyword phrases are being searched upon, do you really know what they are looking for?

Here’s a real-world example…

Let’s say I wrote a book on emergency first aid and CPR and am looking for keyword phrases to promote my book. During my keyword research I find that the keyword phrase, “how to save a life,” is searched more than 40,000 times per month. I get excited because this phrase seems perfect for promoting my new book. But is it?

I dig a little deeper and find that this phrase will be meaningless for me. Why? It’s because the average searcher isn’t looking to actually save a life, they’re looking for information (lyrics, the music itself) for the song, “How To Save A Life” by The Fray!

The search volume is great, but the intentionality of the search is different than what it appears on the surface.

Keyword research is paramount to Search Engine Optimization and the ability to increase targeted website traffic. It’s best to avoid rushing in as this is the foundation for which all other SEO tactics will be built upon.

What Next?
We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB

The Importance Of Building Quality Backlinks Fror Your Website - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

If you’ve studied SEO for any length of time, you know that there are things you must do to your webpages themselves, called “on page optimization,” and things external to your website, called “off page optimization.”

While there are a number of tactics that fall into the off page optimization category, the most important is the building of quality backlinks. A backlink occurs whenever an image, a piece of text, or your full website url is linked “back” to your site from some other.

The best links are those that are “one-way,” meaning that a site links to you but you do not link back to them. It can be beneficial to “trade links” (called reciprocal linking) with another webmaster for the purpose of gaining website traffic but it’s not a strategy that will improve your search engine rankings or SEO.

As each page of your website should be optimized for 1-3 keyword phrases, it’s best to build “anchor text links” (aka text links, hypertext links, hyper links, contextual links) that include the keyword phrases you are targeting. The more links you build, the better your ranking will be for the terms contained in the links.

Here’s a perfect example of this in real life:

If you search Google.com for the term, “click here,” you will find a page that gives access to the free Adobe Reader (a page off of Adobe.com) ranked in the first position.

This is an interesting/valuable observation as their page is not optimized for this keyword phrase at all. You won’t find it in their Page Title, their Meta Page Description, or anywhere on the actual page itself.

Then how is this page ranked in the top spot for this term?

It’s happening for one reason, and one reason only… a huge amount of backlinks have been built by webmasters from around the world, that link to this page. Want to guess what keyword phrase they’ve used when creating their links? That’s right… they’re linking the term, “Click Here,” to the specific page that is ranking in the first position!

As I write this, Yahoo reports that 2,927,761 links are pointing to this page.

This shouldn’t be taken to mean that you should abandon your on page optimization efforts, but it does reveal the power of anchor text backlinks.

The more links you build to your pages that include your targeted keyword phrases, the more likely your pages are to rank well for the terms… it’s just that simple.

What Next?
We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB

SEO Tips For Small Business Owners - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

While there are a variety of ways to increase targeted website traffic, every business owner should consider optimizing their website for the search engines.

Instead of putting all of your eggs in one basket, it’s best to drive website traffic through several sources. This way, you can cast a wider net, resulting in more traffic, and track the efficacy of each source.

Before you begin, you should understand the core concepts of Search Engine Optimization (and Search Engine Marketing). In order to increase your website traffic and attract qualified prospects, you need to understand three things:

1. Everything related to SEO starts with an understanding of what a “keyword phrase” is.

Anytime someone conducts a search on Google, or another search engine, they enter some text to start their search. In SEO terms, the entered text is called a “keyword” or “keyword phrase.”

If you know what keyword phrases your prospects are entering when looking for the type of information, products or services you offer, you will know what phrases to optimize your web pages for.

2. Websites are not indexed or ranked by the search engines… each web page is indexed and ranked independent of any other.

This is commonly misunderstood but so vital to understand! Just because you have one web page that ranks really well in the search engines, that doesn’t mean that your others will also rank well.

Each page of your website must be uniquely optimized for a handful of keyword phrases… keyword phrases that are searched upon and those likely to attract your targeted audience.

If you pay close attention to the optimization of each page, you should see a dramatic improvement in terms of search engine placement.

3. Like it or not, you’re competing against others!

Some have a harder time with this concept than others but the truth remains the truth… in order to get your web page listed on page one of Google, you have to kick one of the currently listed web page’s off!

This is valuable information because it will help you understand what you must do to achieve the ranking you’re after.

Thorough analysis of the web pages currently listed for a particular keyword phrase will tell you how hard it will be to overtake one of them. You need to pay close attention to a number of elements including:

• How well is their page optimized for the keyword phrase?

• How old is their domain (the older the better)?

• How many links can be found that point to the page (the more the better)?

While there are other elements involved, these three are of primary concern. If you find you can outdo your competitor’s web page in at least two of the three areas mentioned, you can probably kick them off the page and take their place.

After ensuring you are optimizing for a keyword phrase (or phrases) that are likely to bring you the kind of traffic you want, you’ll often find it is the quantity of backlinks that make the real difference.

Of course, the quality of the backlinks is important too but if you are going to concentrate on one objective, it should be the building of links. Ensure your text links use the keyword phrases you are optimizing for and you’ll find you quickly climb the ranks of the search engines.

What Next?
We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB

What Is Search Engine Optimization? - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

Search engine optimization, aka SEO, is the term that refers to the things you can do to improve your website’s visibility in the search engines. Search engine optimization techniques focus on increasing the organic, or natural, traffic that you receive based on your ranking within the search engines.

The goal of search engine optimization is to ensure your website appeals to search engine crawlers, or bots. The search engines will take note of your site and its content, categorizing it in a way that will allow it to show up in the SERPs (search engine results pages) when certain keywords are typed.

Search engine optimization is achieved through a wide variety of methods. Many webmasters or SEO professionals will focus on proper keyword research, clarity in the setup of your website’s headers, tags, file names and descriptions, external backlinking, internal cross linking, and quality content creation.

While each search engine uses its own algorithm for determining the ranking of every page that is indexed, it is possible to increase your rankings by making your site informative and visible via both on-page and off-page techniques. Sites that are designed with ease-of-use and quality information in mind tend to do better than those built sloppily and without a solid plan.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is similar to search engine optimization but focuses less on natural rankings and more on the actual promotion of a website. SEM techniques generally include natural SEO but almost always branches out to include contextual or paid search advertising.

Paid search advertising models became more prominent in the late 1990’s, after the search engines themselves became more popular. SEM focuses more on business-oriented websites and their overall online marketing strategies. Because many of the paid advertisements appear at the top of the search engines, the FTC in 2002 responded to complaints by clarifying that paid advertisements and website listings must be clearly denoted so that consumers do not confuse them with websites that have obtained high rankings naturally.

It really doesn’t matter what type of website you have, whether it’s personal or geared towards your business. Incorporating search engine optimization techniques into the creation and ongoing upkeep of your site will ensure you receive higher levels of traffic and, ultimately, greater success.

What Next?

We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB

Mobile Web Design Barnstaple: Mobile Shoppers Are Impatient! - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

Mobile Shoppers are Active – but Impatient!

Among smartphone owners with an interest in shopping, 58% are using their phones either on their way to or in a retail store. But if the web site or app they visit delivers a poor experience, they will punch the responsible brand.

According to a new study of mobile shoppers from mobile site testing and optimisation platform Maxymiser, 30% of dissatisfied m-shopping visitors will leave and go visit a competitor’s site instead.

The importance of a strong mobile shopping experience has never been greater as that’s a 1/3 of your visitors clicking back instantly as soon as they see your site is not mobile friendly.

What Next?

We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB

Mobile Web Design Barnstaple: Mobile is a Necessity! - Updated for July 2016

by Right Click Digital: SEO Search Engine Optimisation, Barnstaple, North Devon

If your website is not already mobile optimised you’re missing out on a ton of business! As of right now more people are looking for “stuff” on their mobiles than desktop pc’s – and that could be your goods or services!

….and what’s more, when they find what they’re looking for on your site, they buy!

If your website is not mobile friendly, 6 out of 10 people will hit the back button instantly – and move to your competitors. Wouldn’t you rather they stayed on your site and became one of the 74% who purchase based on a mobile search?!

What Next?

We are your local Web Design and Online Marketing company based in Barnstaple, Devon. We help small and medium sized businesses all over the UK and the world make the most of their online presence.

If you have been thinking about ways to bring in more customers to your business, a mobile friendly website is a great tool to help you engage better.

You can call us on 01271 324 841 – or complete our Contact Form.

We’ll do our level best to answer your questions without resorting to complicated jargon and industry-speak and then you can decide for yourself whether this service is something you would be interested in.

Right Click SEO Ltd, Bridge Chambers Business Centre, 1 Bridge Chambers, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1HB