Search Engine Optimisation Archives

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Edinburgh

On July 9, 2012 / blog, Search Engine Optimisation, seo edinburgh

Search Engine Optimisation in Edinburgh

Using SEO Edinburgh as an Optimisation Example

In this SEO article we’re going to look at the basic end of on-page SEO – for this example we’ll be optimising the page for the search term SEO Edinburgh.

We’re not saying that this is exactly how you should do it – in fact to illustrate some of the common methods available and using them all on a single page we’ve effectively OVER optimised it.

Because Tartan are an Edinburgh web design company offering ethical search engine optimisation services, our example phrase is something that we would probably go after anyway – getting the phrase ranked highly in the search engines will drive targeted traffic seeking local SEO services. Anything that gets your site traffic for free helps keep your prices competitive or maximises your profits.

So how is the on-page optimisation going? So far we’re at 107 words and have managed to mention the phrase or some closely related phrases 5 times. Obviously this may seem a lot but reading the page back hopefully it doesn’t read as excessive. We’ve done this because phrases mentioned at the top of an article tend to carry more SEO weight than those lower down a page (with the exception of the last line on a page) and so it would most likely be fine if we didn’t mention SEO Edinburgh again. Except we’ve just done it…

Tartan: Local Edinburgh SEO

You’ll note the first few times we mentioned our phrase we used it in a bold font and then we italicized it.

Also, the way this website is coded, the page title gets used within an H1 tag automatically. We went on to mention Edinburgh SEO type phrases again in an H2 heading tag followed immediately by an H4 subheading tag.

See that boring tartan image over there? We’ve optimised it by using the phrase in its file name, a descriptive alt tag and a title tag – although we’ve been careful not to use the exact same phrase each time.

The key is to give the search engines a pretty good idea of what the page is about without constant repetition – in fact recent algorithm changes have cracked down hard on this type of excessive on-page optimisation (and artificial off page link building using the same keyphrase in every link).

Don’t do it kids!

While it’s not visible on this page, there’s a page title and page description within the head code of our site. Chances are strong that if you found this page in Google or any other search engine (they do exist) you will have seen the result of this in our listing. The search engine will have displayed a 70 character long phrase containing 2 variants of our target term, because we told them the title to display using this title tag:

SEO Edinburgh: We’re an Edinburgh search engine optimisation practice

In fact by illustrating it again – and then by drawing further attention to it in blockquotes we’re now absolutely overstepping the mark and we’re running a serious danger that this page is becoming over optimised for the phrase.

Back in the day, over optimisation meant keyword-stuffing – and even though you still see sites ranking highly with huge swathes of keyword links in the sidebar or footer area, this is now a big no-no. Most SEOs suggest never exceeding 2% keyword volume per page – but the fact of the matter is Google’s latest algorithm considers keyword stuffing to be using the same phrase in all the tags we’ve illustrated so far. Even an exact match domain name can send a spam signal in certain niches.

We’re only at 464 words and yet we’ve officially maxed out the phrase. Anything more and the article is keyword-stuffed and we risk some form of penalty.

Don’t worry though. In a regular article or web page you’re probably never going to be mentioning your keyphrase this much – but because this is intended as a basic on-page optimisation illustration we’re really going to town.

We mention our target phrase again in our page description – even though there is no real merit to this with Google, as they say they ignore keywords in descriptions. We also wanted to try and attract clicks so we mentioned that we are low cost and ethical:

Tartan are the local SEO Edinburgh based professional practice delivering low cost search engine optimisation services in an ethical sustainable way

Continuing with on-page methods, another thing a lot of people suggest adding is a link to an authority site such as Wikipedia or a related authority site. In our example we could go for an outbound text based link using the target location of Edinburgh – or the subject of SEO – as the keyphrase. Targeting the full phrase and providing a link to a related site – ie ANOTHER Edinburgh SEO website – would only increase page rank to a rival site – which isn’t good.

Now this outbound link – there is a lot of discussion that the search engines are wise to this trick (of course they are) and on whether this should be tagged as no-follow.

We feel when leaving it as “follow” there is no real loss of link “juice” and you’re showing the search engines that you really rate this site – and aren’t just up to some dodgy SEO trick.

SEO Edinburgh Video

Video is a fantastic on-page medium and with it being so easy to create a video, upload it to YouTube and then embed it on a website you’re missing a trick if you don’t use video. It keeps people on your site longer, another metric that search engines use to see how valuable the content on your website is. A further benefit is that your video if optimised properly in itself using tags, and descriptions targeting your phrase then it may well show up in search results too. Double bonus.

Obviously we’ve not made a video but we love this short and rather odd song about Edinburgh SEO! Good on them. It’s a perfect example of what to do and this company has probably bought a gig on Fiverr to have a 30 second film made using their keyword. It works.

So thats it. Basic and easily implemented on-page optimisation for our keyphrase SEO Edinburgh. The methods are the same whether you’re a Dean Dentist, a Haymarket Herbalist or a Mornigside Musician. Need a hand? Call us today we’re the Edinburgh SEO specialists!

Domain Name Selection

On June 27, 2012 / Search Engine Optimisation, seo east lothian / 4 Comments

What’s in a (domain) name?

Every day, in fact countless times each day we see small businesses shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to getting free traffic from the search engines.

It drives us crazy the opportunities these guys are literally throwing away – the easiest step-up in search engine optimisation it’s possible to make.

And this really isn’t rocket science, tricksy SEO tactics or state of the art bleeding edge optimisation – we’re talking as basic as it gets… How you name your domain.

Doug and Mary

Doug Mackie and Mary Moore* have a small painting and decorating company in Dunbar, East Lothian and want to get on-line.

They want to get online because they’re hoping to generate a bit more business.

Their company is Mackie And Moore, so one day filled with excitement – they buy MackieAndMoore.com.

They’re just thrilled to bits with their domain and quickly get themselves a small website built locally, get their URL printed onto their van and business cards – happy as can be. They get on with their work safe in the knowledge that business will roll in.

Each night they check their e-mail account looking to chase up all the leads their new website will be generating.

Except as the days, weeks and then months roll by Doug and Mary don’t see any additional custom from their website.

I was pretty puzzled, not to mention angry. All the money we’d spent on our new website, all the time we spent writing copy – and we’ve had no return on investment. We feel like giving up… So where did we go wrong?

It could have been so easy…

You see Doug and Mary wanted a website to increase their trade.

Which means they were wanting a website to attract search engine traffic.

The thing is, whats the first thing people in Dunbar type into their search engine of choice when they’re looking for a decorator?

Is it “Mackie and Moore”?

Of course not. It’s “Decorators Dunbar“

If only Doug and Mary knew just how easy it could be.

Picking a domain for SEO

Search engines still (and no doubt always will) place a decent chunk of search rank importance on the domain name. They have to do this so that a search for a big brand will always return the brand name’s site first.

Not only does the domain name matter, but in a location based search, the ccTLD (or country code Top Level Domain) does too.

Doug and Mary are not international painters and decorators and do much of their work in and around Dunbar, in the UK. They don’t need to appear on search engines in America or China – so for them a .co.uk domain would have been far more suitable than a .com.

To maximise their chances of ranking – even without any additional SEO tactics – Doug and Mary should have bought a keyword rich domain, taking advantage of domain relevance in search results. Domains, such as DecoratorsDunbar.co.uk – or EastLothianDecorators.co.uk – or DunbarPainters.co.uk.

Even better, they should buy all of these domains (this doesn’t just help them rank and provide them with future opportunity for additional SEO, it stops their competitors from doing the same!)

If they had built their website on any of these domains, chances are pretty high that with even the most rudimentary on-page SEO, they’d rank somewhere on the first page for the terms (and yes, this even works for larger cities).

See our domain? We’re web designers so we have web design in the URL. It just makes sense.

When you’re selecting a domain name for SEO, it should reflect what you do and the area you cover. Domains are cheap – there’s nothing to stop you buying up several. When you decide to really step up your SEO efforts you’ll be glad you did!

Vanity and brand Domains

That’s not to say Doug and Mary shouldn’t have bought the domain they did. For branding, a yourname.com domain is excellent.

Also known as a vanity URL, for sticking on your business cards, company vehicles and for any e-mail address, yourname.com gets our vote every time. (It also puts an end to our other pet hate – companyname@gmail.com type addresses. Don’t do it kids.)

You want easy SEO? You want to get a leg-up the results pages without employing an SEO agency?

Buy a Keyword-Location.localTLD. domain
Build your site on your keyword domain.
Then put a domain forward on yourname.com to your keyword domain.

This way you get type-in traffic from people who already know of you – but you’ll also get new traffic from the search engines.

And everyone’s happy.

Want more advice on buying a domain name? Need Local SEO help? Get In Touch

Alan Macallister

* names have been changed

Updated Google Webmaster Academy Videos

On June 24, 2012 / blog, Search Engine Optimisation / Leave a comment

A must watch series of videos for all webmasters

and not all of them are starring Matt Cutts: Shocker!

For anyone running their own website – or taking an active interest in all things Search Engine Optimsation related, this small series of short videos , care of the updated Google Webmaster Academy should be on the Must Watch list.

Some of them are old (but golden) but most are brand spanking new.

So grab a few chocolate digestives, turn off the phone and get ready to drink from the Google Kool-aid…

The good stuff to put on your website…

The BAD stuff. Boo Hiss! Spam!

Different flavours of spam.

Getting visible when there’s not a whole lot of text on your site. (with Matt!)

Site Maps and webmaster tools

Thinly veiled advert for Google Plus.

“Here’s a fun one”

search engine optimisation (SEO) East Lothian

On June 11, 2012 / Search Engine Optimisation, seo east lothian

Search engine optimisation in East Lothian

SEO East Lothian as an optimisation example

In this article we’ll be looking at the very basics of on-page SEO – in this case we’ll be targeting the search term SEO East Lothian.

While it can’t be said the phrase receives a huge amount of search engine traffic, for an East Lothian based web design company offering search engine optimisation services it would still be a valid term to go after for ranking purposes. After all for such a sparsely populated area East Lothian already contains a significant number of seo practices.

So where are we so far in the on-page optimisation process? We’re at 97 words and have mentioned the phrase or closely related phrases 5 times. This may seem a lot but phrases mentioned at the top of an article carry greater importance than those farther down the page (with the exception of the last line) and so it would probably be ok if we didn’t mention SEO East Lothian again. Except we just did.

Tartan: East Lothian based SEO

The way our website is set up the page title gets used as an H1 tag automatically. Next up we’ve mentioned East Lothian SEO type phrases again in an H2 heading tag followed immediately by an H4 subheading tag. See that image there? We’ve optimised it both by using the phrase in its file name, a descriptive alt tag and a title tag – although we’ve been careful not to use the exact same phrase each time. The search engines still get the idea of what the page is about without constant repetition – in fact recent algorithm changes have cracked down on this kind of over optimisation both on-page and in artificial off page link building. Don’t do it kids!

Now you can’t see it on this page but chances are that if you found this page in Google or any other search engine (they do exist) you will have seen the result of our title tag. The search engine will have displayed a 70 character long phrase containing 2 variants of our target term:

SEO East Lothian: Our East Lothian search engine optimisation practice

In fact by illustrating it again – and by drawing attention to it in blockquotes we’re possibly overstepping the mark now and there is a danger that this page is becoming over optimised for the phrase. We’re only at 384 words and yet we’ve kinda gone crazy on the phrase. In a regular article or web page you’re probably not going to be mentioning your keyphrase this much – but then this is intended as an on-page optimisation illustration.

Tartan are the local SEO East Lothian based professional practice delivering low cost search engine optimisation services in an ethical sustainable way

At this point, a lot of people suggest adding a link to an authority site such as Wikipedia or a related authority site. In our example we could go for an outbound text based link using the location of East Lothian – or the subject of SEO – as the keyphrase – after all to target the full phrase and link to a related site – ie ANOTHER East Lothian SEO website – would only increase page rank to a rival site.

There is a lot of discussion on whether this should be tagged as no-follow, but whenever we’re using this ploy we’d always suggest leaving the link as follow. There is no real loss of link “juice” and you’re showing the SEs that you really rate this site – and that there is nothing shady going on. (however – and this maybe is a little shady, we like to disguise the link using styling to make it appear the same colour as the surrounding text and not be underlined in the way a regular link appears. It’s there but you don’t want people to click off your site, having got them there in the first place)

SEO East Lothian video

Video is an excellent on-page medium and with it being so easy to create a video, upload it to YouTube and then embed it on a website you’re wasting a trick if you don’t use video. It also keeps people on your site longer, another metric that search engines use to see how valuable the content on your website is. A further benefit is that your video if optimised in itself using tags, and descriptions targeting your phrase then it may well show up in search results too. Double bonus.

Obviously we’ve not made a video but it’s clear to see why we love our SEO practice being based in East Lothian!

So thats it. Basic and easily implemented on-page optimisation for our keyphrase SEO East Lothian. The methods are the same whether you’re a Dunbar Dentist, a Haddington Herbalist or a Musselburgh Musician. Need a hand? Call us today we’re the East Lothian SEO specialists!