Link building is an extremely important part of any search engine optimization campaign. If you have a website and you want this site to be ranked highly in the search results and to attract relevant traffic, you need to put a considerable amount of time into your link building strategies.

There are two ways to approach your SEO link building. You can use ethical link building methods or unethical techniques to establish links to your web pages. The approach you decide to take will have a massive impact on how effectively your links work for your business and how they affect your SEO campaign.

If you choose to use link building farms or link swapping schemes, then the quality of the links you create will be extremely low. These links will usually be from irrelevant sources and this is not beneficial for your business.

When the search engines are exploring your website and trying to categorise it correctly for their search results, they do take into consideration the sites that are linking to your web pages. If these websites are not relevant to your business you are therefore more likely to be categorised incorrectly and this means many opportunities will be lost. Links of this kind are also of little use because the traffic they direct to your website is unlikely to have a genuine interest or need in what you have to offer.

The online businesses that use such unethical methods to develop as many links as possible to their web pages without regard for relevancy or quality can be punished by the search engines, sometimes even dropped from the search engine results page (SERPs) altogether.

If you want to build links to your website that will help the search engines to find and rank your pages and that will help your target audience to find you too, you must use ethical link building methods.

You have to create links from relevant and high quality websites that are ranked highly in the search results. It is being associated with websites like this that will get the search engines noticing and respecting your business and that will help relevant traffic to land on your site.

You also have to establish links from popular and respectable directories by getting your website categorised appropriately in their listings, include links from your well-written and regularly updated blog and provide links from other content you have produced for your SEO campaign too. Links from forums, social networking sites and many other websites can all be advantageous when trying to encourage the flow of relevant traffic.

Ethical link building is vital when using search engine optimization and we at Searchengineoptimization.co.uk can provide you with all the link building strategies you need to achieve success. We offer high quality link building services that can establish links from a range of sources to your web pages. These links will get your website visited and respected by the search engines and also by your target audience too.

How much website structure affects search engine optimization very much depends on who you ask. It’s probably a question that many businesses now wish they’d asked a long time ago, especially if the structure of their sites is preventing them from moving with the times. Our four tips on why site structure matters are useful for anyone with an interest in SEO tools.

1. The structure of a site has a direct bearing on how well it can be perceived by search engines. Search engines send programs known variously as ‘robots, ‘spiders’ or ‘crawlers’ to investigate the internet and find out what’s on sites. Not just this, they use algorithms to process the data returned to them by crawlers and determine the relevance and popularity of sites to be listed on their results pages. Site structure is important because it will always affect the ways in which ‘crawlers’ see it and its content. SEO services agree that if there are three or more links to each and every page from others on the site, then it can be said to be well structured for search engine optimisation. If a site’s structure inhibits the number of internal links, then you can safely say that it’s not structured well. Crawlers need to be able to read as many of your ages as possible, and these links are the paths they will take. A site needs to be structured in such a way as to allow for easy and readily available navigation to and from a site map. A site structure that goes out of its way to be user friendly can generally be said to function well in terms of crawlers.

2. Site structure can help improve navigation between pages. It can be said that we see four ways in which optimisation can be improved by a publisher – search engine results pages, on-site optimisation, off-site optimisation and on-page optimisation. URL optimisation comes under the heading of on-site optimisation and it’s very important. Search engines take URL’s into account. Website structure should include good URL’s. In this context that means they should be short, meaningful and not overfilled with keywords.

3. The structure of a site affects its capacity for growth. It’s easy to imagine having to add new sections to a site at a moment’s notice – indeed it’s very common. If it’s something you can do without too much effort then you’re lucky. The fact is that for some it means rewriting the entire navigation system for their site, and that means their structure is not optimal for SEO. Search engine optimisation services generally agree that you ought to be able to increase the size of your site by 30% without needing to substantially alter your navigation system. Given the current climate of change and the increase in social media, it’s easy to imagine having to add content for new users. And so it can be argued that if your site doesn’t allow for its easy inclusion then it’s not useful. Site structure needs to allow for change in a world where it’s the only constant.

4. Search engine results page ranking can be improved with good site structure. The result page on a search engine gives the user their first glimpse of content after they’ve entered text into the query box and hit enter. It’s worth remembering that it’s very wrong to assume that all users will go for the number one search engine choice. Website structure can be seen as one of the SEO tools at your disposal for making your listing attractive to those faced with multiple choices on a search engine results page. If a short description makes it clear to the user that your site offers more relevant material for them, they’ll choose it first instead of what’s number one. They have free will and don’t always assume that most popular is best.

It is to be hoped that after thinking about our tips you are in a better position to improve on your site structure for SEO. There is a lot more to say about the subject, but it can be summed up by saying that consistency in terms of featuring keywords and exploiting user friendliness for navigation make for a good site. Good site structure can clearly help you get to where you want to be, which might be near the top on results pages, but it’s ultimately on a user’s desktop.

As a business with a website you need to promote, the need for good links to your pages may be glaringly obvious. You want visitors and they need roads down which to travel to your pages, and links should present the web user with just such sign-posted roads online. What must also be apparent to you is the need to rank highly on search engine results pages in order to bring visitors and potential customers to your pages. Not ranking highly with Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest of the big names will dramatically reduce your exposure, and can mean make or break for a lot of businesses. But did you know that good search engine optimization also involves good link building? The connection may not be immediately obvious, but this article we’ll look at four quick tips you should really take into consideration when you plan your link building strategies.

1. Most of the things you do to make a site good for users amount to excellent SEO link building strategies. This is first on our list because it should amount to a guiding principle in all your endeavours with SEO. Search engines send ‘robots’ (sometimes called ’Spiders’) to investigate the internet and all the sites on it. Robots send back information about sites, and search engines apply complex algorithms to that information to decide how high up on their results pages a site deserves to rank. Sounds daunting? Well it isn’t as complicated for the website designer as it may sound. Search engines basically rank sites well that are relevant and popular. In order to be both, you need good quality content and good quality links. When you’re adding content to your page remember that if it appeals to users it will also score you points with search engines. Never use spamming methods, because they’ll encourage the wrath of search engines and users alike. It’s much better to have less, good quality links than to have a plethora of bad ones. Ethical business practise on the web amounts to good search engine optimisation.

2. Don’t try to deceive the search engines. Although many SEO services still advocate the buying of links and other dubious methods of obtaining them, you should be aware that any such activity is very much frowned upon by search engines these days. In keeping with point number one, use good practise and don’t compromise your chances by letting your guard down. Search engines have sophisticated ways of being able to spot bought links. Words such as ‘advertise’ and ‘sponsor’ generally set alarm bells ringing, and you should remember that the search engine has easy access to information about when links were added. Having hundreds of links added over the course of a week and then very few over the next month sends a message that something’s wrong.

3. Learn what the best quality links are and develop linking strategies built around trying to harness their powers. Google and other search engines will generally rank your site higher if you have a lot of authoritative links. What are these? Links from educational or governmental sites are authoritative in that they’re recognised as legitimate links from respected sources. If you can get a good number of .edu. (education) .ac (academic) and .gov (government) sites to link to you then you’ll glow in the eyes of search engines and achieve the high ranking on their pages that you need. Another benefit of thee ‘authoritative’ links is that you don’t have to wait too long for Google to take them into account for your site. Google now have a special time-filter algorithm, which means that most other links won’t benefit your site for 3-6 months. This is one of their measures to combat spamming techniques (see tip 2!). There are ways of getting these links. As a start, try to get a link from local and other libraries. When selecting from several search engine optimisation services ask whether they have experience in link building strategies like this, if you decide it’s important to you.

The three quick tips here really represent the tips of the iceberg when it comes to SEO and strategies for building links. We haven’t touched on the importance of social media and blogs, for example. Ask the professionals you employ for their advice on other ways to get the most out of links and keep our three tips in mind for link building success!

As you are no doubt aware, links are the paths that ‘spiders’ sent by search engines use to reach your pages on the web. For this reason alone they’d be crucial to the success of any venture involving the Internet, since search engines need to see your pages to be able to present them to users. Links are important for another reason too though; through them users are provided with a service and search engines are given a sound means by which to judge the effectiveness of a site. Any good SEO company will tell you that link building strategies are vitally important when it comes to ranking well on results pages, and many will offer special link building services. So, what are some link building strategies that will improve your ranking with search engines? We’ve compiled a list of six splendid tips that will get you started. They’re full of facts you really need to know about links and how they can benefit you in ways you might not have imagined!

1. Include a blog on your site. We’ve put this one first because it’s really a must nowadays. Search engines need to see fresh content on your pages, and a blog will provide the ideal platform for that. As well as this it encourages useful linking to your site. Indeed it’s one of the very few methods of improving SEO that Google itself suggests. You’ll earn links from other blogs on the web if the content’s good, and it will involve you in with the online community in any number of beneficial ways.

2. Links show search engines how popular you are. This is a useful tip because, in case you hadn’t heard, it’s popularity that gets you to the results pages. Don’t misunderstand us, though. While it may once have been the case that having a ton of links on your site made it appear popular and thus brought you the positive attention of search engines, these days it’s much better to have a few useful links than a great many irrelevant ones. Think quality and not quantity when it comes to links. As a general rule of thumb, if links enhance the user experience for your site and content, then search engines will view them favourably and your site too.

3. Pay very close attention to your anchor text. Anchor text is one of the key features used by search engines to determine the relevance of a site. If a good number of links direct users to a site with anchor text that features the right keywords, then there’s a very good chance that a site will be ranked well for that anchor text.

4. Build a sitemap and link effectively between pages on your site. Search engine spiders will use the links within your site to get around, and they’ll also take the number of links present into consideration. Once again, it’s a case of doing the right thing by giving users what they want. In this instance we’re talking about how usable a site is. If there are plenty of links within the site, then it’s obvious that users are able to navigate easily and well.

5. Encourage customers to link to you. This is an example of having people vouch for your site through linking to it. Search engines see links as evidence of your sincerity on the web. Like wearing t-shirts with a brand name on it, it shows that you’re popular. Being popular will only make you popular, so encourage these links!

6. Have content that others will want to feature and directories will want to include. If a blog you’ve featured on your site gets featured on another site it carries with it any links you’ve included in the content. Similarly, content that gets included in directories will offer users the opportunity to link back to you for as long as it’s featured. To take advantage of this you probably need to have good content on your pages. Not surprisingly then, it’s another case of gaining favour with search engines through providing a good service.

In conclusion, you’re bound to have noticed that our list of six splendid tips leads you decisively in the direction of good working practices. It’s what search engines want and need to see these days. Get a good SEO company to help improve ranking, but remember that user experience and high quality content are a recipe for success!

Let’s face it, the web features a lot of content that we’d all do well as users to mistrust. As people with an interest in using the internet to shop for goods and services, we know what we like to see and what we don’t. Trust is probably one of the most important SEO tools at your disposal.
Trust is really at the heart of our endeavors on the internet. We all know that since there’s no face-to-face communication we are, to a greater or lesser extent, at the mercy of unscrupulous users. So, having said that trust is vitally important, what are some things you look for in a site. What are the things that make a site ‘trustworthy’ and how can you translate these factors into good SEO?

The most basic thing to consider might be that although people are by nature more or less trusting than others, we all generally trust the big name search engines to deliver some good results when we conduct a search. These days it would be both disappointing and surprising to click on any of the top ten results and find a poor and irrelevant site. Having asserted this, good SEO can be seen in context as absolutely crucial.

In order to maintain a good client base, search engines work hard to maintain high standards when it comes to rankings for their results pages. With this in mind, gaining their trust and in turn that of users involves understanding the methods they use to determine your popularity and relevance. Learn the ways in which so-called robots sent to probe sites relay information and what precisely they look for. Learn how you can include text files which talk directly to them, and be sure to make the most of the opportunity. With trust in mind, choose a good and reliable search engine optimisation company. If you can’t trust them to give you the best advice about good practice, you can’t trust them to create a site that’s optimal in the long term.

Earning general trust among users should be a higher priority than learning about the specifics of search engine algorithms. Good ranking is based largely on popularity, and it’s through gaining the trust of users and providing a good service that popularity can be attained.

It’s not only malware that revolts users. Unacceptable sites can simply be boring or insubstantial. It takes a while to earn a reputation as trustworthy in terms of good content, quality links and a high level of service, but it takes only a second to lose it. SEO services will tell you that every aspect of SEO is ongoing. High standards need to be achieved and also maintained of your users are going to trust you.

A basic guide to ways in which trust can be cultivated among users would probably highlight the following factors:

Users Trust Sites On Which They Can Participate in Active Discussion

Feeling involved nurtures a sense of trust, and website can get users involves by leaving ample room for comments and feedback. Such feedback can be useful on many levels and these days a site that doesn’t allow for user participation can be seen as lacking something essential.

Users Trust Sites They Use to Get Information for Personal Use.

If you think about the type of information on a site, there are varying degrees to which the information can be said to be useful on a personal level. Information which is used and talked about and valued is what should be present if users are to trust a site fundamentally.

Users Trust Sites Where They Purchase Goods or Services

The interaction involved in transactions is likely to encourage trust among users. One the transaction has been completed the user can feel a connection to a site that extends beyond the purely commercial.

Users Trust Sites they Visit Often

Regularly visiting a site and finding high standards and reliable information maintained leads users to trust sites as dependable. The personal touch is usually attained through hard work in that it’s only constant attention that will allow you to be thorough. Think about social media sites such as Facebook, and how effective it’s been in getting users to trust its pages. Think of how you might employ social media marketing to benefit from the success of sites such as that one.

In conclusion, as far as trust is concerned, it’s wise to go with your instincts.

You may well have heard before that good marketing is always good SEO, and there’s a lot of truth in the assertion. While advanced search engine optimisation tools clearly have an important role to play in getting your site onto results pages, it’s good marketing that will see you prosper in terms of SEO and in terms of success for your business. One example of a good marketing strategy that translates well into your arsenal of SEO tools is the newsletter.

In the same way as a blog can spread your message on the internet as its content gets included in directories and people start to link and refer to it, newsletters offer a platform for getting your message and your site out into the big wide world.

Why a Newsletter?

Newsletters are good because they target an audience that’s likely to be interested in what you provide. Spammers make the mistake of trying to reach everyone in the hope that one out of every few thousand unwitting users to receive a message will be interested in it. Newsletters present a valid and useful way of presenting your company to users who are more likely than most to be interested in it. Whereas spam is actively discouraged through severe penalties, newsletters actually score you points with search engines and users alike. They are one of the best, free SEO vehicles at your disposal.

Quality Counts

Because the newsletter is such a good vehicle for marketing strategies, it’s worth putting a lot of time and effort into its production. Seen as a marketing tool, it’s a great way of introducing your company. At the same time, though, it’s not exactly an advertisement. You need to stay within the bounds of what constitutes a good and legitimate newsletter in order to get the most out of it.

Get Technical

Any good search engine optimisation company will tell you that keywords form a vital element of good SEO. The principle applies to their use in newsletters. Featuring useful keywords can help your optimization tremendously if it’s done correctly.

If you’re wondering how to go about creating a good newsletter, have a look at some others on the Internet to see which ones are effective and which aren’t. Decide what constitutes a good newsletter in terms of the messages you want to convey about your company.

Exposure

To get your newsletter up and running it’s a good idea to link to it and offer visitors the opportunity to subscribe. Bear in mind that you want your newsletter to bring people to your site. That means that it must contain some good reasons for them to do that. This can be as simple as making your newsletter interesting. Readers might well think that a good newsletter means a good site and look for themselves. Your newsletter might equally make use of promotional tools. Bear in mind that these should be legitimate. Don’t advertise discounts in a newsletter that you aren’t prepared to offer to all your clients.

Find groups online that are likely to be interested in your newsletter and target them specifically. If you employ an SEO company they’ll be able to advise you on ways of doing this effectively.

Think about social media marketing and social media optimization. Are there ways you could use popular sites to get your newsletter out into the public domain? SMO offers great opportunities for distributing SEO tools such as newsletters. The beauty of social media is that your audience is not hiding. You can find a community of people ready and willing to accept marketing as entertainment. This means that there are near-endless possibilities for you to provide a wide variety of material.

Final Thoughts

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that newsletters need to be stuffy and formal.  Make them as exciting and enticing as you can for your target audience. Remember that the aim is to bring users to your site. With that in mind, you’ll want to be sure that the site is ready to receive visitors responding to newsletters. The last thing you’ll want is a high volume of traffic consisting entirely of users who are dissatisfied when they reach their destination.

There’s really not a good reason to be lazy when it comes to producing a newsletter. It offers an effective and legitimate way of enticing users to learn more about your business by visiting your site. Take time to produce an attractive, interesting newsletter.

It’s unfortunate that over the past few years many misconceptions about search engines and how they come to rank sites have emerged. Some of these have been extremely counter-productive for publishers, as bad advice has been followed with bad practice and failure has been the only result. Any good search engine optimisation company will advise publishers with the best current knowledge about how search engines decide which sites will appear on their results pages in mind. It’s worth noting that no one really knows the whole truth about how everything works. We’ve compiled a list of common misconceptions about search engines to help you recognize a myth when you hear one, and guide your content in the right direction for prosperity.

The Submission Process Mirage

You may well have noticed that search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing feature submission forms. To the uninformed, these might seem like an easy way to get to the results pages. Sadly, this is not the case. While we’re not advising you to ignore them totally, you shouldn’t make the mistake of believing they’re the end of the process when it comes to search engine optimization.

As SEO services will advise you, submission forms used to be of value in the 1990s, but these days they count for little when it comes to getting your site up on the results pages. The fact is that the entire submission form process was abused to such an extent that search engines found they needed to search the internet and find everything out for themselves, without relying on forms to be accurate. Too many publishers featured keywords in forms deceptively. Whereas submitting a form would, in the past, lead a search engine to crawl your site and give you an advantage, today the search engines are crawling the web relentlessly and exhaustively, regardless of submission forms.

With this in mind, and the knowledge that submission forms have been publicly branded useless, it’s best to concentrate on SEO methods such as good link building strategies, search engine reputation management and social media marketing to get you to the top by making your site popular with users. That’s what search engines are looking for now, and in a sophisticated way that you can’t really escape.

The Notion That You Must Overfill Your Site with Keywords

Many publishers got carried away with this idea. Even some of those who wanted to retain good quality content found believed they had to fill their sites with keywords because others were doing it, and they wanted to remain competitive. The fact is that nowadays, search engines are wise to such methods of getting in through the back door when it comes to ranking on results pages. Search engines will now take into account the number of keywords with a view to punishing sites which overuse them. By including an unnecessary amount of keywords you could easily find your site languishing outside results.

Buying a Vast Amount of Links Will Benefit Your Site?

This is one misconception that’s very much alive in the modern world of SEO bad practice. No reputable search engine optimisation company will advise you to invest in bought links these days. As an SEO method, it’s never been proven to get results. And there is now evidence to suggest that search engines will view the sudden appearance of a great many links with suspicion. There are sites that have really fallen into a trap with this, as they continue to feel the need to spend regularly on links. It’s a much better idea to concentrate on good quality, useful links. Search engines these days want to see sites that are providing a useful service to users, and to this end you should feature links with those users in mind. That buying links will help your SEO is one of many myths that involve the idea of fooling the big names like Google. As a guiding principle, it’s probably best to give up on that idea before you start.

The ‘Spamming Works’ Myth

Are you ever surprised by how much spam still exists on the Internet? It seems like many publishers cling to the idea that it can somehow work to their benefit. Don’t be tempted by any spamming methods. Remember, search engines continue to search and destroy.

Focus on good, ‘white hat’ methods if you want to succeed, and don’t get caught out by misconceptions that anything else will help you.

In the world of search engine optimization, keyword research has to be one of the most valuable, rewarding and productive activities there is. From a marketing point of view, the internet’s goldmine and keywords are what will probably get you to the richer seams. Search engine optimisation services will tell you that it’s madness not to undertake keyword research or to pay attention to it, and with good reason. Keyword research can help you to see into the future prospects of your business, react to changes in the market place and give to users precisely what they’re already looking for. If you want to know whether there’s a gap in the market, look at keywords. If you want to understand customers, then keywords really are key. Here are few tips we’ve put together to help you to get the most out of keyword research. We hope they’ll open a lot of doors for you!

1. Judge the value of keywords effectively. Every time a word is entered into a search engine query box it’s recorded in some way, and there are tools at your disposal for gaining access to this information. It’s not quite as simple as it may appear, though. As any search engine optimisation company will tell you, the methods available for doing keyword research cannot inform you directly of their importance in terms of receiving traffic or a high ranking. In order to get the most out of keyword research, further investigation needs to be undertaken. Hypotheses need to be tested and strategies implemented. This is precisely the reason why SEO services exist – it’s too wide and complex an area to cover for most people.

2. Question yourself. Ask yourself some very basic questions about keywords. Will users who find your site through the term you have in mind find your site relevant and useful? Importantly, will it benefit your company if, indeed, they do? You should be sure of these things before moving ahead with your keyword research.

3. Do your own search using the keywords, and experiment. Get an idea of what’s already going on by being a user and entering the keywords. Try different combinations of words before and after the keywords themselves and get a feel for the types of content that’s already being accessed. When results appear that feature a large number of ads, be aware that a lot of visitors to those sites are becoming customers. Think of the keywords that take them to the site as lucrative ones, and use this information for your own keyword strategies.

4. Use Google analytics tools to research points of interest related to keywords. Find out which keywords provide an exact match taking users to pages on your site, and measure the volume of users getting to your site via that path. With this and the rest of your information, analyse which visitors are the most valuable and which words they are using to reach yours and other pages on the internet. With this information in mind, strategically plan your keyword usage and application.

5. Remember that the majority of searches are not centered on one keyword, but longer and more complex sets of words. Around 70% of searches can safely be said to consist of long sets of words that take users to all kinds of weird and wonderful sites on the web.

6. Understand that it’s not easy. Having asserted that you need to understand the demand surrounding words or terms, getting good ranking involves a lot more work than that. There may well be very powerful competitors who’ll seem always to outrank you on results pages, and if you’re starting your site now it can seem very daunting. Get good advice from an SEO company about keywords.

7. Don’t overuse keywords you decide to feature. Search engines are wise to the practice of overusing keywords to attract attention to a site, and don’t tolerate it. Avoid being punished in ranking terms through using keywords sensibly and appropriately.

In conclusion then, be aware that keyword research is extremely useful, but that it’s not the be all and end all of the analysis you need to perform if you’re to get ahead. Having the right keywords is only the start. There are a number of ways you can improve your chances of getting onto the top places on results pages, and you’ll need to think carefully about what SEO tools work best for your business.

Pagerank is an algorithm created by Larry Page and licensed exclusively to Google. As someone with an interest in getting onto search engine results pages in order to better promote your product or service, you’ll want to know something about how pagerank works. You might also want to know whether any of the dodgy methods you’ve heard whispered about in dark corners for using it to improve SEO actually work. What would a good SEO company tell you about pagerank? There are, after all, foolish ideas in every sphere of human enterprise. We’ve prepared some simple tips on what to gravitate towards and what to avoid when it comes to page rank. We hope it’ll prove useful to the professionals and the uninitiated alike.

1. How can you manage page rank? Well, there are really just two sensible ways. You can get more external links to pages on your site and you can try to register users linking from within as well as without. The first method needs to be accomplished by means of good link building strategies, and it’s true of both methods that link building services can help. The second way involves avoiding page rank from visitors being distributed among many pages on a site, since it’s optimal to have all visitors counted as visiting one. Google is very much aware of the techniques that have been employed to this end, and none of them, really work well.

2. How not to manage page rank? As a rule, using any technology outside Google itself for monitoring page rank is unwise. Use it for researching links, by all means, but assuming that Google would allow anyone to know more than they do about their own methods is virtual madness.

3. Don’t count links. If you’re specifically concerned with counting the number of links then you’re probably approaching SEO in the wrong way. Remember that it’s not quantity but quality that counts, and that search engines like Google decided long ago to punish bad practice. Buying a lot of links in the hope of increasing pagerank, for example, could prove to be counter-productive.

4. Get good quality links. Google assign higher importance to link to a site from authoritative sources. If you want to do something to improve your pagerank, implement a good link building strategy. Try to get links to your sit from domains that are ‘edu (education) .gov (government) .ac (academic). Learn about other domains that have importance online or from SEO link building experts. Having said this, it’s useful to point out that Google still hold all the cards when it comes to pagerank. It’s exclusive to Google and they aren’t telling us how exactly it works. Google’s algorithm is its own and its filters are too. We can make educated guesses and informed choices only.

5. Don’t try to hide pages from indexes. Privacy policies don’t prevent pages from being visible to search engines.

6. Consider the design of the site in terms of usability and ad location. Search engines want to rank pages well that provide relevant, high quality content to users. It makes sense really, when you think about what function you expect a search engine to perform. Keep in mind that good practice is also good SEO and that if your site is good for users it will also perform well when it comes to pagerank.

7. Feature fresh content that’s updated regularly. One of the key factors concerned in pagerank is surely having new content on your pages. Google takes this seriously and it’s another instance of good practice being good SEO.   

8. Use keywords wisely. Remember to analyse the words that users are typing into query boxes carefully. Take them into account at all times with a view to improving page rank. Beware of overusing them, though. Google have sophisticated methods of monitoring overuse and penalties can be severe.

In conclusion, pagerank is probably still as mysterious to you as it is to us. It is to everyone outside Google, to some degree. What’s certain, as illustrated here in our eight tips, is that you can’t get around it and you can’t ignore it. The best way of getting results is to act like it didn’t exist. Create a site that’s useful. Feature keywords cleverly and don’t overfill your site with them. Don’t try to cheat Google, you’ll lose. Get good quality (authoritative) links.

It’s official, having a blog on your site is almost indispensable these days. Google have released their official guide to what constitutes good SEO and it’s confirmed what most search engine optimisation services have known for years – that introducing fresh and original content on a regular basis really helps a site to get onto their results pages.

There aren’t many better platforms for fresh and original content than a blog. So if you’ve decided to run with the in crowd and feature a blog, how are you going to go about it? Do you know all there is to know about making it optimal from an SEO perspective? For the most comprehensive advice you can always consult a professional SEO company, but we’ve put together 22 terrific blog tips so that you can start improving your blog’s chances with the search engines today. Let’s go!

1. Give your blog a personality. It will give users someone to identify with if you put a name and a face to the blog. On a human level we’re more likely to trust the writing of someone who doesn’t hide away in the shadows.

2. Give it some attitude too. Don’t go so far as to upset anyone if you can help it, but if it’s appropriate you might want to make your blog exciting by expressing opinions and not letting it become staid and boring.

3. Update it regularly. As we said in our introduction, it’s fresh content that search engines want to see. For it to be fresh it needs to be updated on a regular basis and so there’s really no room for laziness!

4. Link to it yourself as much as you can. It stands to reason that you’ll want to make your blog as reachable as possible. For that reason, a lot of links are essential.

5. Link to other blogs and join an online community. You’re probably not the only person with your kind of blog content. Instead of seeing absolutely everyone else as competition, why not get involved with other people and their activities. Link to them and leave comments etc. You’ll find you receive a lot of exposure and some new fans.

6. Allow for comments and moderate them regularly. Comments encourage debate and debate encourages exposure. Encourage comments and moderate them to let your audience know that you’re interested in them.

7. Make it attractive to look at. Everyone knows that things ought to be as pleasing to the eyes as possible from a marketing point of view. How it looks will depend on your audience, but whoever they are, keep their taste in mind.

8. Write properly. No one appreciates poor grammar, punctuation and spelling, and they never have.

9. Stick to one topic per post. If you try to do too much your blog will become confusing. Keep it simple to keep their attention.

10. Create an archive and categorise. Allow for easy access of past material. This encourages it to be used and re-read and that means more exposure.

11. Use short paragraphs. They hold people’s attention better.

12. Avoid default layouts. Using a default layout will show that you didn’t put a lot of love into the blog’s creation. Get advice from a good SEO company on layouts that are optimal from an SEO perspective.

13. Design a logo. Having a recognisable logo can help users to recognise you as you and your blog spreads around the web.

14. Make it substantial. Have informative text in blogs. Don’t assume that readers are uninterested in factual texts.

15. Make it topical. Show that the content is fresh by referencing current affairs that will interest readers.

16. Link to it from social media. Social media marketing is one of the cutting edge SEO strategies.

17. Let robots read it. If you have to use Flash etc. feature text as well.

18. Become a member of a network. It’s great exposure.

19. Make sure your pages load quickly. This is important because yours is not the only blog on the web and most users have little patience.

20. Keep your standards high. Remember that quality counts and that if you develop a good fan base there’s no reason why you can’t be successful long term. Think of the most successful sites on the Internet and how they came to be so popular!

Good luck with your blog and remember to get more advice from a good SEO company!