Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

Businesses that focus their search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies on niche phrases may be more likely to attract consumers willing to look beyond the first page of search engine results, it has been claimed.

According to MarketingSherpa, those searching for niche products are more likely to delve past the first search listings to find what they are looking for.

Such consumers are more likely to type in long, specific search terms to increase the chance that they will hit upon the item they want, meaning that retailers should also follow this when implementing SEO strategies, the research firm said.

"Even if these highly specific pages only get a few clicks per month, chances are good that those clicks will be very valuable for companies with high price points," it noted in an article on its website.

Earlier this year, Yahoo! content quality analyst Noah Belson wrote on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog that long-tail phrases are more likely to offer greater value for money than more popular search terms in pay-per-click advertising.

This is because long-tail terms generally attract more targeted traffic than high volume keywords, he noted.

Businesses are looking to focus their online marketing strategies on search engine optimisation (SEO), blogging and paid search as the economic downturn continues.

This is according to the results of a new poll by the Online Marketing Blog, which asked marketers which strategies they intend to focus on in the next six months.

SEO came top of the list, taking 36 per cent of the overall vote. Blogging received 33 per cent, while pay-per-click took 26 per cent of votes.

Other strategies cited by business marketers as key to their strategies during the downturn included email marketing and social networking.

"SEO has achieved a comfort level for most marketers. Contrary to some mainstream media characterisations, SEO is a high impact, high value tactic for reaching customers online," stated Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog.

Web-based marketing tactics are helping a growing proportion of business-to-business organisations boost their lead generation activities, according to a new poll by CSO Insights sponsored by LeadLife.

Online marketers should look at their search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies again in the light of recent advances in semantic web technology, an expert has said.

This technology is capable of delving deeper into users’ search queries to find out more about what they mean and potentially return results that are more relevant to the original term entered.

Recent developments in the sector mean that marketers should not ignore the potential offered by semantic search, Microsoft AdCenter community manager for Europe Mel Carson said to New Media Age magazine.

"I can’t see semantic search changing paid search in the short-term, but now is a great time for marketers to be looking at their own content and investing in SEO to take advantage of the advances in semantic search," he stated.

A recent Ovum report highlighted Expert System, Powerset, Yedda, Trovix and Hakia as being among the semantic web technology providers to watch, PC World reports.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the main technologies that e-commerce firms believe are integral to their operations, according to a new survey.

Almost nine in ten of those responding to the Zoomerang survey for SLI Systems said they thought SEO, email marketing and site search were the most important strategies for their organisations.

Nearly half of those polled said they were also planning to implement social media, with 32 per cent saying the same for online video.

Furthermore, 93 per cent of organisations suggested that they saw SEO as becoming an increasingly effective medium in the next three years.

"Adopting proven technologies that can guide shoppers to a merchant’s site in the bustling world of e-commerce will enable retailers to deliver a better customer experience and ensure the holidays are fruitful," said Shaun Ryan, chief executive of SLI Systems.

The most popular e-commerce sites in the UK during August were Amazon, Argos and Play.com, according to the IMRG-Hitwise Hot Shops List.

Traffic to news aggregator websites has surged by over 100 per cent in the last two years in the UK, new Hitwise statistics have shown.

According to the figures, Google News and NewsNow are the top two most popular news aggregators, with market share of about 30 and 23 per cent respectively.

Social bookmarking and news sites StumbleUpon and Digg each have more than ten per cent of the UK market, while more than 27 per cent of traffic from news aggregators goes to news and media websites, Hitwise said.

Magazine and newspaper websites were found to constitute most of these unique visits, while the BBC site was also discovered to be a particularly popular destination.

Such websites may be getting better at incorporating search engine optimisation strategies into their articles - the Press Gazette reported earlier this year that the Times Online site sees 27 per cent of its inbound traffic come from Google.

Making online video a high quality user experience can have benefits for search engine optimisation (SEO), it has been claimed.

According to usability expert Mrudula Kodali, inserting highly descriptive titles and summaries into video pages and offering text transcripts could help to improve search rankings as well as the user experience, ITWales reports.

"You must use relevant keywords, which are good for SEO as well as usability as these are likely to be the terms people are typing in searches," she explained.

Ms Kodali went on to advise that those integrating online clips into their websites ensure the video is relevant to the content surrounding it and that information such as the length of the clip is made available.

The proportion of US households viewing online video has risen from 32 per cent to 63 per cent in the last year, ABI Research recently revealed.

The new trend of browser address bars that combine history, search and suggestion features means that the simplest, most trusted forms of search engine optimisation are still relevant today, according to one expert.

Writing on the Search Insider blog, David Berkowitz explained that these address bars’ auto-suggest facilities mean that it is a good idea for businesses to ensure keywords are included in filenames and page titles.

This is because users are more likely to use these terms when looking for a previously visited page, leading to the browser in question offering suggestions based on the title of the page or the name of the file.

"It’s somewhat reassuring that you probably already know the tactics that will put you in the best position with the new browsers," said Mr Berkowitz.

Microsoft Internet Explorer still dominates the internet browser market, although Firefox now accounts for nearly a fifth of the overall sector, according to figures from Net Applications.

It is vital that small businesses consider the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) when launching their own website, an expert has said.

Melanie Lindner of Forbes said that while it is all well and good to make a company website look slick, it will not offer much benefit if consumers are unable to find it via search.

She recommended that small firms make use of the free tools available to carry out keyword research and place the most relevant terms across their web pages.

It is also ideal to implement SEO before the website has been finished so that it can launch with a good search engine ranking, Ms Lindner said.

"Ask your site host to attach meta tags - hidden programming code easily read by search engines - that include your top 20 keywords in order of importance to your business," she stated, adding that businesses should attach a message to the homepage saying that the site is currently under construction.

About 69 per cent of the UK’s small businesses have their own website, according to a poll carried out by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform two years ago.

Making websites more efficient can help online marketers protect themselves against the current recession, a managing director has suggested.

Mark Simpson of Maxymiser blogged on E-consultancy that content optimisation technology can help marketers target a site’s content and design, assessing what works and what does not.

Using this information, web designers can gauge a site’s success with consumers and make changes accordingly - potentially increasing customer loyalty while keeping costs to a minimum.

He suggested that even basic changes - changing the colour of buttons or simplifying the checkout process, for example - can yield "significant" results.

Earlier in September, Linda Sheetz of PRstore-Newport Beach, asserted that web retailers should use analytic tools to assess a site’s effectiveness, Hit Search reported.

She added that during the credit crunch, online retailers often have a better chance of reaching consumers directly than bricks-and-mortar retailers, as people sometimes choose to shop from home to save money on petrol costs.

Businesses should increase the amount they spend on marketing strategies such as search engine optimisation (SEO) during periods of recession, according to a marketing adviser.

Daniel Robinson of Vizcom Design said that firms can use SEO strategies to make their websites stand out from the competition.

He said such advice is relevant for small to medium-sized firms during the credit crunch, explaining that some 75 per cent of businesses find their suppliers by using search engines.

In addition, he explained that SEO may be a more cost-effective investment than other types of advertising.

"Businesses that invest in search engine optimisation will generally get a much better return on their investment than pay-per-click and certainly much better than spending money on some traditional forms of marketing like an ad in a telephone directory," said Mr Robinson.

Meanwhile, a recent article published on E-consultancy asserted that British supermarkets could improve their SEO rankings by adding more relevant keywords to their home pages.