In the last few months, a lot of words have been written about the competition between Google and Bing. It is clear that Google’s international hegemony is not under any serious threat for some time to come, so some of the commentary may have been a bit off the mark from time to time. However, the omission of the search engine Yahoo! in some of these debates is perhaps more of a problem. Search engine optimization involves having an understanding of how best to exploit the opportunities provided by all the major search engines. It is important that SEO debates which generate more heat than light are subjected to critical examination.

Yahoo! is not about to challenge Google, but that does not mean it should be neglected. The less successful search engine does attract many users, and it does provide search results that can be pretty useful from time to time. Therefore it is worth considering it as a small part of an overarching SEO strategy. A site can have certain aspects of it adjusted to ensure that the needs of Yahoo! are met. At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we have the expertise which means that this can be accomplished without upsetting any other elements of the site-specific strategy. However, it is of course also possible to share some basic tips, with the caveat that it is accepted that every site has its own unique needs.

The basic SEO road to success can be adhered to when pursuing optimization for Yahoo! The emphasis has to be placed on creating unique content of the highest quality and applying it frequently and regularly to a site. Relevance is of course crucial. Hence it is prudent to establish a content plan which will work in practice and can be sustained over time. Keywords will play their part, and it is sensible to use them sparingly. Keyword research is a vital element of the strategy, whatever the search engine under consideration. It has to be reviewed periodically and adjusted as necessary.

When it comes to link building, there is some advice which is Yahoo! specific. It appears that this particular search engine puts great stress on internal links when it evaluates a site. It is thus worth taking extra care to establish that there are no errors in the internal links. Appropriate anchor text should also be employed and can be altered if new developments make this an astute move.

Getting your URL correct is an obvious but necessary step. The web crawlers of Yahoo! will not behave as you would wish if you omit to get this right. It is a question of having a URL which is not only apt for your online firm, but is also straightforward. Inclusion of a keyword or the name of the firm could be the cherry on the cake.

SEO is often not about optimising for merely one search engine. It may be that part of a particular target audience likes to use one of the search engines which are not Google. It may be wise not to forget Yahoo!, regardless of the fuss made about Bing.

It is important for SEO professionals to keep themselves informed in relation to all the major trends in the complex sphere of search. Although Google is the major search engine on a global scale, it is important to acknowledge that Yahoo!, Bing and others can be of some importance too. Search engine optimization is never about ignoring major aspects of virtual reality because the best companies involved are always looking forwards. Neglecting smallish details now can lead to missing big opportunities down the track. It has been observed that the major search engines are resorting to advertising on traditional media in the ongoing struggle for market share.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we digest all the industry news and make sure that we follow all the latest trends. This means that the trivial data is weeded out and what you would be as well to know is underlined. The idea is that our clients campaigns are kept up to date with the trends that may prove of relevance to their firms in the fullness of time.

Google elected to pay for advertising during the Super Bowl. Some observers interpreted this commercial decision as one made out of fear. It was suggested in some quarters that Google executives had responded to pressure from Microsoft’s Bing in a manner redolent of panic. A few of these commentators seemed to lose a sense of proportion in their more or less instant response to what they perceived as an almost humiliating step.

Just a matter of weeks after Google’s alleged desperation, an expensive television advertising campaign was launched on Britain’s television channels to persuade people to reconsider Bing. A cynic might think that Bing was getting anxious about its lack of ability to get people to desert Google. The cynic might even mention that Bing could be focusing on its struggle with Yahoo!, aware that it is too far behind to mount a serious challenge to Google’s hegemony. They might even suggest that Bing could irritate Google. However, such comments would be speculation and it is always best to stick closer to fact.

‘The Guardian’ newspaper has an excellent motto which you may be aware of. It suggests that, “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” The problem with swift response to industry news is that it can lead to ill-informed comment, which leaves out proper consideration of the context. The fact that Google chose to advertise during the Super Bowl was interesting, but it was important not to read too much into it. Similarly, Bing’s expensive British advertising campaign is something to watch, but thorough interpretation will have to wait.

It is handy for sites to provide authoritative industry news and it can be great to have up-to-the-minute responses, but it is shrewd to ensure that your content is likely to make sense a few weeks down the track.

The important thing to be certain of is that your search engine optimization company keeps itself and its employees up to date with the latest trends.

Management of a site in accordance with the principles of search engine optimisation is not simple. There are a profusion of tips to keep in mind, and many of the tips are obsolete or were never universally applicable. Despite these acknowledged complexities and inherent difficulties, sites have to be managed in ways which users and search engines approve of. SEO may not always work, but an absence of SEO spells failure. One issue which is seldom referred to in the online literature on the wide and evolving discipline is the matter of what should be done about pages which become superfluous to requirements. Is it best to delete these pages or not?

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we have the experience which makes it possible to answer some of the rarely asked questions. However, the best way to achieve online success is to do some research and then enter into an arrangement with a specialist firm like ours. This means that a busy online firm does not have to spend many hours engaged in monitoring the shifts which keep transforming the sphere of search.

As for the question of deleting pages, it is worth considering the context to the dilemma. The initial aim of SEO is to help a site improve its ranking position. It is normally the case that Google and the like appreciate plenty of content. Obviously, quality of content is vital, but nevertheless quantity should not be neglected. Furthermore, larger sites do generally fare better than their smaller counterparts in the ceaseless competitive struggle. This is because the larger number of pages bring with it additional strength in terms of the internal links. Thus far the argument for page retention seems straightforward enough.

However, consider what an ecommerce site should do when it changes the nature of what it sells on its pages. Perhaps that part of the stock was of a seasonal type, perhaps the supplies simply ran out, for whatever reason the specific products are no longer for sale. If SEO is about satisfying the needs of users, would it not be prudent to remove the page to avoid annoying them? What would be the point of retaining photographs and reviews of products which could not be accessed on the site? While these questions may initially appear unanswerable, the key point about keeping the site large should not be forgotten so swiftly.

Research and practice has indicated that a useful and productive compromise can be made. Instead of simply deleting a page and showing a bland ‘product not currently on sale’ comment elsewhere, the best solution is usually to retain the page. Retaining the page is a practical and effective proposition because the content on it can be adjusted. For example, such a page may be altered to include links to fresh products on other pages. These products should ideally be of a similar nature to the originals. In this way, the needs of the user may be met and the content kept for the benefit of the search engines. In SEO as in life, unnecessary waste is to be abhorred.

If you ever joined a new school in the middle of term, you may remember how difficult you found it. Making friends while being new is not an easy thing to accomplish. It can be a bit like this when a new site with a fresh domain name hits the search engine results pages. Just as new children in a class may be regarded with a degree of suspicion, so the major search engines are slow to place their trust in new sites. It can be a bit frustrating in the latter case, because it is not in your hands when you are permitted to find your feet.

Fortunately, an experienced SEO outfit will know which techniques to employ to get your specific site out of the obscure doldrums. One aim of search engine optimization is to increase the visibility of your site. While progress may be a little sluggish in the first instance, a carefully planned and effectively implemented campaign has every chance of pushing your site onwards and upwards. This means a little patience may be required, but there will be plenty for you to do so that should not be a problem.

It is vital that there is clear and honest communication between a client and a SEO firm. At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk we believe in being open with clients and never give rise to false expectations. Not all the firms in our sector can say the same and fewer still make good their commitment.

One reason why the major search engines are a bit reluctant to give ‘fresher’ sites a fair go is that they are understandably wary of sites associated with spammy methods. Only when the site has proved that its methods of advancing are gradualist and ethical will it develop momentum. Google and the like cannot really be criticised for their lack of a welcome to new sites, because history has demonstrated that new sites are a major source of unethical behaviour. The kinds of firms which have given these sites their bad reputation are culpable for the status quo. Such firms have sometimes used sites in a nefarious manner, only to abandon them after several months.

Finding your feet, then, is not a straightforward activity. However, if you refuse to panic, if you avoid acting precipitately and if you adopt the most suitable methods to improve your position, you should find them. This will mean that your online firm eventually receives a sustained boost. This boost will come in increased traffic to your site. Close collaboration between you and your SEO company is needed in order to convert this traffic into more conversions. With a high conversion rate comes a high profit rate.

History matters in this line of business. If you can develop a history of positive behaviour which satisfies the ethical guidelines set out by the search engines, then you can be on your way towards success. Unfortunately, success cannot be guaranteed. Nevertheless, history shows that success is likely to come to those who avoid dubious shortcuts and put pleasing their human users at the top of their priorities.

We have seen some vast changes in the world of search engine optimisation and user search habits over the past year, and the sophistication of search engines themselves has improved dramatically. There is a lot of speculation in the world of SEO, as to what the next changes are going to be and how they will affect those companies carrying out web optimisation. Real time searching and social networking have been two of the main reasons behind the frequent changes, and with user trends changing on a weekly basis, it is time we predicted what the future holds.

Real time searching is becoming increasingly popular. Independent sites such as OneRiot have always favoured real time searching, however users saw a significant increase in the number of real time search results, such as posts from Twitter being displayed within their standard searches. When it first came about, there was a bit of a novelty behind it and it did not appear to infringe on the actual search too much – it just offered a couple of alternatives. Now, however, anyone searching on Google will often notice that quite a large proportion of the page results displayed in the top rankings are real time.

This either means one of two things, that real time searching is in high demand and we will see an increase, or that real time search results are unnecessary and are taking over our standard search pages. Whichever this means, there are predictions that Google will introduce a separate search engine for real time, just as they have a separate engine for images and videos.

The other factor that has dramatically increased is the number of people using their mobile phones to access the internet. This is definitely an area of development, and whilst we have seen an improvement in mobile internet ease of use and websites catering more for mobile downloads, there is still a definitive gap between PC internet use and mobile internet use. One of the most obvious missing pieces on mobile internet is the lack of advertising, so this could potentially be the next step for search engines, by looking at most frequently used mobile applications and channelling advertising through this.

Content within even just standard web pages has become much more advanced and diverse, with images, videos and podcasts now being a common occurrence. Search engines have become more used to alternative content, however, it is only recently that they have been a consideration for search results. The future is likely to see videos and images being increasingly more valid in terms of page ranking, with search engines using them as a deciding factor.

In terms of search engine companies, Google is of course the leader in this area. However, with the increased popularity of Bing and the now confirmed link up of Yahoo and Microsoft, this is an exciting time in terms of search engine dominance, and we may find ourselves having a fairer and more balanced choice when conducting searches.

There are a multitude of misconceptions about search engine optimisation out there. Some of these misunderstandings are pure myth; others are exaggerations, simplifications or distortions. Given that a large volume of articles are written about SEO, and that the rules of the game change frequently, it is unsurprising that these various misunderstandings about the topic are in circulation. Another factor which leads to inaccurate appreciation of the facts, is that people typically absorb information in simplified form. In addition, confusion can arise because articles on the net may be more akin to advertisements, rather than genuinely educational content. The chronic lack of clarity is only compounded because the discipline is as much an art as a science.

A case in point is the potential effect Flash can have on the performance of a site in the search engine results pages. Obviously, no site will be affected in the same fashion by the presence of Flash. Nevertheless, most people who know a little about SEO think that Flash is an obstacle to progress in the competitive struggle for visibility, with regard to the major search engines. While this is not necessarily incorrect, it makes sense to dig deeper, if a more nuanced perception is desired.

Flash is present on many sites, because web designers can do amazing things with it. Interactivity can be fostered by its deployment. Moreover, a site designed with a lot of Flash can tick all the right boxes when it comes to aesthetics. Navigation can be facilitated for the user as well. However, as many experts and non-experts will tell you, Flash can prevent search engines from being impressed by the text they crave.

The reality is actually more complicated than this. Flash is not a simple block in all circumstances. The major search engines like Google all prefer to have their web crawlers roaming over the text of a site, without any hindrance, and rankings can be adversely affected if a site is constructed out of Flash. For example, internal links and other parts of the site can lose their potential visibility, if the whole is built of Flash. The other side of the coin is that Flash can just be part of a site. If this option is chosen, it can be possible for a site, with some elements designed using Flash, to fare well in the rankings. Achieving the right balance in practice, however, is by no means easy.

Whether the correct balance, in relation to Flash quantity, can be attained is in part dependent on whether SEO was considered during the initial design of the site. If the site was created with the key principles embedded in the site structure, a little Flash may be an insignificant obstacle to future progress. On the other hand, if optimisation is being attempted during a later phase in the site’s existence, close collaboration and constructive dialogue may be necessary for a client, and its consultants, to take things forward successfully.

At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk, every effort is made to come up with effective bespoke solutions which address the online needs of clients.

Sometimes, the finer points of search engine optimisation are lost in the rush to go over the same old topics. When reading about some of the details of SEO, it is important to check other sources, to establish whether the points being made are still accurate. It is also crucial to keep in mind that the average piece of advice, will not always have quite the same impact when implemented on two different sites. Strategies must always be tailored to fit the requirements of the individual site concerned.

The bulk of articles written on the topic of anchor text seem to regard it positively, and it is possible to see where the diverse authors are coming from. If keywords and anchor text are combined efficiently, the consequence can be highly productive in certain circumstances. This is because the anchor text and keywords approach can lead to the major pages being held together, within the context of a more effective structure. This kind of structure may be received more positively by the major search engines, compared to a structure in which this work has not been done.

However, there is more which can be added to what is known about anchor text. Just as the practice of keyword stuffing can get you into trouble with the major search engines, so the clumsy handling of anchor text can sometimes cause a problem. It is therefore worth paying close attention to the way that you use anchor text. According to experts, Google and the like focus on anchor text more than one might think. It would appear that the anchor text is one thing in which the algorithms of some search engines take considerable interest. This is not necessarily bad for a specific site, but it can be.

Problems can arise if the anchor text stays the same, when the content on the pages does not. This is a problem, because it is an area in which the search engines have detected unethical behaviour in the past. The manipulative malpractice occurred when individuals used keywords in the anchor text to attract traffic, but put quite different content on the relevant pages. This breaches the idea that optimisation should involve doing things to assist users. The mis-use of anchor text is crude. It can also be counterproductive. Most of all, it is unnecessary. Any problems with anchor text can be sorted out. At Searchengineoptimization.co.uk, we have the capacity to deal with SEO dilemmas of all kinds.

When it comes to anchor text, the thing to do is alter it when content is updated. Some of the text which is being added can be used to help form anchor text. It is usually the best solution to vary anchor text on the different pages of the site. It is worth consulting experts when dealing with the intricacies of anchor text. With regard to SEO as a whole, it is useful to accept that it is too important to be done by amateurs.

Search engine optimization is certainly a tricky business. Even experienced individuals can have problems with their sites on the way towards the upper reaches of the search engine ranking pages. If SEO was straightforward, there would not be the emphasis on research, monitoring and continuous campaigns. However, among the plethora of factors to consider when undertaking SEO, there are some basics which stand out and have to be got right, come what may. While SEO is only successful if it is suited to the specific site concerned, there are some basic elements which feature in a multiplicity of diverse campaigns. One such element is the basic need to get the navigation sorted out.

In the context of attempting to drive a site up the search engine results pages on a major search engine, it is clearly imperative to get the navigation of the site as correct as possible, because it can have a considerable influence on site performance. Both users and web crawlers have to get around the site with a minimum of fuss. If neither users nor search engines can find the information they crave easily, a site has a real problem. The task is to ensure that no such difficulty arises.

For the benefit of the search engines, it can be useful to position a navigation bar on the left-hand margin of the screen. Some experienced SEO professionals contend that the search engines will do their job quicker, if it is positioned in this manner, and if the links are presented as text. Practical research has indicated that this technique can help a site make the most of its navigation, and ultimately assist with its position in the search engine results pages. The utilisation of relevant keywords in links can also produce positive outcomes. However, this practice can be overdone, having the potential to aggravate users and search engines alike. The answer is, of course, moderation. Occasional inclusion of keywords in link anchor text cannot be other than a positive.

While some of the positive steps that can be taken, with regard to navigation, have been mentioned, it is equally important to draw the attention of search engine optimization novices to some of the things to avoid. An error which can have far-reaching implications, is the placing of navigation within a system which puts up a barrier, in relation to the crawlers of the major search engines. For example, if something like Flash is used, the work done on introducing keywords into the internal links will not prove to have been effort spent efficiently. If Flash has to be used on a site, or is already in existence there, one potential solution is to have links in text alongside the stuff that is culpable for the difficulty. According to a reputable source, this strategy can be of benefit to users also.

Navigation is of considerable importance when learning about the basic principles of search engine optimization. However, it can be approached from various angles. Getting it right is just one way of ensuring a site fares better in the struggle for position on the search engine results pages.

When looking at your search engine optimization techniques there is no doubt that your research and rankings will be based around a handful of the most popular search engines. Google is of course the leader in the search engine world, with Bing, Yahoo and Ask following closely behind. Yahoo used to be one of the favourites, yet Google somehow flew past them to the number one spot almost overnight. Bing has a large user base due to its loyal customers from the MSN Windows Live days and it also benefits from the fact that it is part of MSN, so people using the site for other information are more inclined to search using Bing.

Ask appears to have held its own, too. After dropping the gimmicky Jeeves reference and offering us a simple question and answer search, its success and effectiveness has somehow been sustained. Then there is the likes of YouYube, which you are highly likely to consider in any SEO if you are tagging video content, or are using YouTube as a host for your video links.

Arguably, these are the most popular search engines around. However, if you are looking more in depth into the effectiveness of your search engine optimisation, should you be considering any other search engine sites?  The short answer is yes, but the more comprehensive answer is that it is not feasible or possible to cover off every eventuality.

If you are considering trends and up-to-the-minute searches, there are quite a lot of people who choose to use search engines for search engines. Sites such as Dogpile might not be particularly well known, but the benefits of sites such as these is you can cover of the four major search engines in just one search, which definitely makes it worth a thought when measuring your search engine rankings.

For comtemporary social trends, one site which should not be underestimated is Oneriot.com. This site offers its users the most up to date and fresh content, whether it is discussion forums, blogs or news feeds, and is a true real time search engine.

It is also worth considering specialised search engines for different types of links or tags to your website. We are already familiar with YouTube for video posts, but if you are running links to images then look at sites such as Imprezzeo.com, which focuses predominantly on image searches. Whilst initial thoughts may be that this is wasteful, let us remember that YouTube is based on video posts only and is one of the largest search sites today.

If you want to go retro, think back to your first days as a web user and you will find that a lot of the original search engines we knew and loved are still going. Lycos, Netscape and Go for instance, all still exist as it is unlikely that these search engines will ever be removed. They may just be worth a look now and again for SEO potential.

Google and the other search engines evaluate websites using web crawlers, also called spiders or bots. These are fully automated critters that follow links across the internet independent of their owners, and report on what they find. That information is used to measure relevancy to particular searches and also to rank websites and decide which are the best. There are a slew of other factors at work, of course- SEO is a complex business- but the data gathered by crawlers is extremely important.

Sites with high authority, those that the search engines think are good, are crawled (or ‘indexed’) frequently. If they are known to update content frequently, that could mean a few times a day. New and unknown sites, or those with low authority for whatever reason, won’t be crawled so often. Poorer quality sites may only be indexed once a month or less.

Collecting and storing data with bots is cheap, but when that data runs into terabytes upon terabytes, using it effectively does become more problematic. Of course, there is incredibly valuable information in Google’s data warehouses, but nobody can deal with an infinite amount of data. There are millions and millions of sites on the web, some with a lot of content and many different subpages, and search engines need to prioritise the ones they gather data from.

For the same reasons, crawlers limit the information they gather from each site. And like the frequency of crawl, the amount of information gathered varies according to the good standing of the site, or otherwise. The higher a site’s authority, the more the crawler will look at.

For most sites, the bots restrict themselves to the top four levels of the url. That means thissite.com/level2/level3/level4/apage.html won’t be considered. Any keywords or content on it won’t contribute relevancy information. Users don’t like clicking through a lot of levels either, so keeping your site structure at four levels or less is a sound idea for more than one search engine optimization reason.

They also don’t index more than about 150kB of content from any page or subpage. Images don’t count towards the total, so you do get quite a lot of text within the limit, and all of that will contribute towards your overall SEO efforts. Again, most users won’t read through nearly that much content on any one page either, so there is a second reason to keep each one at a reasonable size. You have to consider your search engine reputation management with every aspect of your site.

Titles should be no more than 70 characters in length or there abouts. That’s not far off the length of the last sentence, so as you can see, it’s a fairly generous allowance. Anything longer than that will look a little odd anyway.

There are other factors that limit where bots will look- Flash objects and poor or image based navigation, for example- but as a rule of thumb, create content for easy reading by people and you probably won’t have to worry much about indexation limits. It is a good policy that will serve your SEO well in a lot of areas.