comScore recently revealed that, between January and February 2011, 10million unique visitors deserted MySpace. The site has also had to wield the axe, revealing that a number of jobs will be lost worldwide. News Corp bought MySpace in 2005 for £330million, but that valuation is expected to be much lower today.

After a site-wide redesign and very public re-launch, MySpace continues to, sadly, haemorrhage users. One of the pioneering names in social networking has failed to keep up with strong competition such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others.

“The future, sadly, doesn’t look too bright for MySpace, especially after they’ve had to cut a significant number of their workforce and are losing visitors in the millions,” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “Social networking has come an incredibly long way since MySpace dominated the scene all those years ago, but despite its reinvention, there still seems to be a hole in the bucket that’s becoming increasingly hard to plug. MySpace though is still a large, powerful name on the social scene – we hope they find a solution to their problems soon!”

Searchengineoptimization.co.uk believe that Microsoft seem to have essentially rebuilt their webmaster tools from scratch, giving more comprehensive and accessible feedback for user behaviour on their websites. They cite that the new update essentially focuses on three key areas: crawling, indexing and traffic. Charts are now accessible for users containing six months of data covering these three key areas – however, users must download and install Microsoft’s Silverlight to be able to view these new features.

Once installed users will be able to see the number of pages that have been crawled, how many crawl errors have accumulated, which pages have been indexed, impressions and clicks. Searchengineoptimization.co.uk feel that alongside Google’s webmaster tools and analytics data, Microsoft’s alternative can also be incredibly beneficial for those embarking on a search engine optimisation campaign, although they feel that Silverlight may be a potential stumbling block.

“Not being able to download all your SEO data from Bing webmaster tools and only being able to access it fully with Silverlight may prove to be irritating and a turn off for those who want to access their data in a seamless fashion, especially if their current internet browser of choice isn’t Silverlight compatible,” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “However there’s no doubting that it’ll be incredibly useful to many people wanting to track their SEO progress, especially as it’s offering many comparable features to some of Google’s services. With Bing soon to be powering Yahoo! search, it’ll be interesting to see whether this move helps Microsoft to claim a bigger portion of the search marketing tracking pie.”

Amit Singhal, Google software engineer and Head of the core ranking team, was recently quoted as saying that image and video content is playing an increasingly relevant role in search engine optimisation, and also commented on the evolution of more social measures for users.

Searchengineoptimization.co.uk believe that Google are continuing to work on the functions of their Google ID feature, whereby, amongst other things, users can sync their Google account with their Twitter account. This can affect their searches on Google – whenever a user searches for something on Google then relevant social media posts may appear from people they follow amongst the gathered search results.

“There are always new developments in SEO, which is one of the things that makes this industry so exciting to be part of.” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “From this latest Google interview it seems that the future is expected be ever more rooted in social media and increasing forms of different online content. Google seem to have taken notice of people power and just how broad the social media spectrum is. By including personalised Twitter posts in search results, users can enjoy a broader range of options to explore which are tailored towards their interests. The knock-on impact this will have on the SEO industry isn’t yet known, but we’re looking forward to finding out”

SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk understand that it can be a disappointing and frustrating experience whenever somebody visits a website only to be presented with 404 errors, pages not showing properly or other error messages – and most users will simply leave the site straight away, probably never to return. Code is placed within URL headers to determine the current status of a webpage, but as most users are not well versed in programming languages, it just looks like the site is broken.

The free Server Header Checker search engine optimisation tool provided by Searchengineoptimization.co.uk can help to decipher the current status of a web page whenever a URL is entered into the search field. This will give an overview of the current coding used in a web page’s header – whether the code is 200 (the website is fine), 301 (has been moved permanently), 302 (has been moved temporarily), 304 (the site hasn’t been modified and may be out of date), 307 (is under a temporary redirect), 401 (is not currently within the public domain), 404 (the address cannot be found on the server) or a 410 (the URL no longer exists). This will help webmasters ensure that their pages are correctly redirected, so that both users and search engines don’t come across dead ends.

“Without correctly coding your web page headers, it can lead to confusion about the current status of these pages, and cause error messages to occur for users,” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “Our free Server Header Checker tool breaks things down in an easy-to-understand manner and can outline the status of any web page once you enter the URL into the field. This highlights any issues so they can be resolved and errors fixed. We have many other free SEO tools available on our site to help anyone with their SEO campaign.”

Websites are written in code, such as HTML or XHTML, and when it comes to SEO, having clean and streamlined code is very important. Even the smallest error can mean that a website will run at a slower rate or not rank as well as it deserves. A well-coded website will be looked upon more favourably not only by human users, but by search engines as well when they come to find, index and rank web pages.

The free site validation checker provided by Searchengineoptimization.co.uk works with the same principles as a spell checker. By typing a URL into the provided field visitors will be presented with an overview of how many validation errors their site has and warnings related to the website’s coding. For the more experienced coder, they will be able to access a more in-depth overview of the errors and warnings.

“Search engines take a website’s code at face value, which means that even the tiniest line of code that’s out of whack can result in it being interpreted as an error,” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “Depending on where the error is based it could have serious implications on how your website is received by search engines. It could also affect other issues such as response time or the general aesthetics of your website, turning people off as soon as they hit your landing pages. By using our free site validation checker you can pinpoint these errors and give yourself an idea of what further work needs to be implemented on your website to fix the issues and reach your full online potential.”

Searchengineoptimization.co.uk believe that a well-constructed sitemap is important as part of an SEO campaign as it can help a website get indexed much more quickly, and acts as a chart for every page that can be found on a website. However, searchengineoptimization.co.uk know that constructing a standard sitemap can be time-consuming, especially where larger websites with lots of multimedia content are involved.

Google has announced changes to the way that sitemaps can be submitted which will allow for the accommodation of many specialist formats at once. The amendments are thought to have been made because of the rising popularity of videos, images, mobile features and more on websites. People will now be able to submit all of this information and more in one go under the umbrella of one sitemap; supporting multiple content types in one single file.

“We’re certainly looking forward to exploring this new feature in the coming weeks and seeing the benefits it can bring to a website. This is just another evolution in the ever-changing world of search engine optimisation,” comments a spokesperson for Searchengineoptimization.co.uk. “Sitemaps are very important for SEO, so our position is that streamlining the internal submission process should only be positive in the long run. But nothing’s ever straightforward in SEO, and we look forward to discovering more about this feature in due course.”

Searchengineoptimization.co.uk understand that search engine Bing have announced a new ‘entertainment’ search function which aims to give users greater access to media content, making it easier for searchers to find sample content for TV shows, video clips, music, computer games, song lyrics, movies and more.

With services like this coming to the fore more prominently with several search engines, including Google, SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk feel that many websites need to better optimise their media content to ensure they can compete in what is already a crowded marketplace and have their web pages appearing in first page search results for their chosen search terms because of the media they contain. Searchengineoptimization.co.uk believe that webmasters can better optimise their images for example by using pictures of an appropriate size and resolution, by using descriptive filenames, and using relevant keywords in alt tags and descriptions so they are better picked up by search engines.

“Although SEO traditionally has an impact mainly on the text content of your site, there is definitely scope for using media such as videos, music, audio clips and images to help you stand out from the competition in addition to your well written, optimized copy.“ Commented a spokesperson for SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. Getting some of your images on the first page of search engine image results, for instance, is a great way to drive more relevant traffic to your site to see the really useful visual resource that you have created for users. We are really excited about the changes that these major search engines are making to the way that they find and present media content to users because it gives websites another way to shine and offers people new online avenues to explore.”

As the internet is a worldwide service, any website can be accessed on a global scale. It is therefore essential that website owners are protected from offering personal information to who they assume is a client, when in actual fact they could be one of the many unscrupulous fraudsters operating on the web today.  SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk have identified that the most effective way to determine whether you are dealing with a genuine client is to find out where they are located in relation to your business, and this can be achieved by using this budding SEO firm’s new Country To IP tool.

Site visitors can type in the IP address of whoever they are conducting business with, and the Country To IP tool will determine where that person is located.

SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk aim for this tool to reveal the true whereabouts of a domain to increase internet security for companies operating online. Not only that, but this tool can also reveal the location of where a site’s audience is located, so organisations can mould their SEO campaign around the base of their target market.

“It is important for online companies to have an awareness of what happens to their site each day,” commented a spokesperson for SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. “Knowing who your target market is and exactly who you are dealing with is essential for keeping updated with the ever-evolving SEO industry and maintaining an effective online security strategy. With an increasing amount of internet fraud and potential clients going online to buy products or services, any company needs to be aware of where they should target their advertising strategies and which precautionary measures they need to take to be safe online. The new, easy-to-use Country To IP tool on our site allows people to do just that.”

SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk have a wide range of free SEO tools for visitors to use whenever they wish. The free keyword density checker is especially useful for those looking to into the possibility of an SEO campaign with their website as it can take any existing web page entered into its search field, analyse all of its content, highlight its keywords and determine what percentage of them are in the attached copy.

Those offering search engine optimization services often comment that the appropriate density of keywords that any SEO on-page content should be achieving is around one per cent. The keyword density checker tool will be able to show the page’s keywords and their density in the content, and can indicate what future measures need to be taken to improve their on-page SEO. SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk are also keen to stress the need for regularly updated content, citing the old adage that ‘content is King’.

“Our free search engine optimization tools are a great way of showing what stage your website is currently at and what steps can be taken to improve it,” commented a spokesperson for SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. “The keyword density checker is a useful tool to see the density level of the keywords you have on any given page. It’s not just search engines that respond to quality content – it is the users too. Having fresh and informative content on your website means users will stay on your site to read it, probably returning for more in the future when it is updated, link to it on blogs and other sites and recommend it to others. These are great ways to help along your overall SEO efforts.”

SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk’s Whois Lookup is a free SEO tool, which can show if a domain has already been registered, the history of a domain name, who it is currently registered to and more. By typing a domain name into Whois Lookup, a plethora of information regarding the domain will appear such as who has registered it, whether it was registered by a company or organisation, their address and contact details, the registrar (host), the date it was registered/renewed/last updated and its current status, including whether it is active or suspended.

Search engine optimization tools such as Whois are especially useful for those looking to start up their own business. Someone may have difficulty in registering a domain, and by entering into Whois they can get clear details on who owns it and whether it is regularly updated. If it has been inactive for a while, they may be able to launch a bid to buy it and make it their own.

“This is just one of the many SEO services we can offer to our clients who are looking to start up an online business and need to get a relevant domain name to proceed,” commented a spokesperson for SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk. “Factors such as domain age, and what a domain has been used for in the past, can have an impact on your search engine optimisation campaign, so it always makes sense to check out a domain before you buy, and our tool provides all sorts of useful infomation.”