The enduring importance of the local in a world of apparent globalisation has been stressed by many astute commentators. The unevenness of globalising processes, and the continued incentives to focus activities around other geographical scales, has meant that locality still matters when it comes to many corporate activities. Although the net has been portrayed as the ultimate globalising force, the way we use it often gives importance to the local dimension.

This prioritisation of the local is particularly evident in search queries, when we are looking for goods or services within a reasonable distance of our specific location. As Google remains the dominant search engine, it makes sense to consider how it handles the issue. Despite Google being an incredibly successful global player, it recognises the value of innovations which facilitate our ability to concentrate our attention on the local. This enables firms to exploit these local opportunities – if they keep their eye on the ball. In this context, this means that they, and their SEO firms, should watch out for relevant changes in the sphere of search.

In recent times, Google Local Business Centre has been transformed into Google Places. While sceptics might contend that this development is limited in its implications, it is best to be fully informed prior to making such a judgement. Although there is an element of re-branding in the name change, it is also the case that there are real differences between the two services. Despite the two services both permitting local listings to appear quite prominently in the search engine results pages, the diverse features which Google Places incorporates are certainly worthy of some attention.

Many small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appreciate Google’s local emphasis, because it enables the listings relevant to their firms to appear relatively prominently. Moreover, Google Earth and Google Maps both feature local firm information. This data can include useful things, like specific opening times or pictures of the office or retail outlet concerned. For many firms, this kind of display opportunity can prove to be a genuine boon. Where Google Places diverges from its predecessor is that it permits a firm to combine this free facility, with a hired box (for a reasonable monthly fee) which can contain additional information. This information may consist of specific items, such as a facility for bookings, a set of handy directions or an attractive corporate video. These options are not the only ones available, but they are perhaps the most likely to succeed.

While the hired box innovation may not initially appear too radical, if the space is used effectively it could easily lead to a firm obtaining more business. Only one rented box may be utilised, so how it is used will be of the utmost importance. For example, an excellent video may make a firm stand out from its local competitors. For instance, a restaurant may benefit from a video which displays its interior and meals in a positive light. Listings which do not incorporate the new box may appear mundane, and the potential consumer may turn their attention elsewhere.

When creating content for our web pages, we all know how important it is to tailor the keywords and phrases to both the search engines and the human user. Although search engines do have guidelines, some of which are constantly changing, their methods of displaying results are not too difficult for a good SEO company to understand. Basically, as long as you keep on top of your search ranking and monitor it carefully, then becoming popular within the search engine results pages (SERPs) can be achieved.

Human users on the other hand are a little more unpredictable. Perhaps there are specific search trends that people conduct, but this differs from person to person. With this in mind, how can one website reach all the people searching in their industry, if they are searching for different things?

The only way to ensure your site shows up in as many searches as possible is firstly to be realistic. You are never, ever going to reach every single person out there, so forget that idea instantly. Instead, focus on your target audience and producing relevant content and it should come together. Luckily for us, Google has taken into consideration a few additional factors to cover off other eventualities of searching, and by looking at a few crucial user search behaviour patterns we can make our site appealing to as many as possible, with the help of Google.

You may have heard this being referred to as ‘personalised searching’ from a Google perspective. This can really help get your site displayed within the top pages if you tailor your SEO keywords to the specific search. For example, Google will recognise product preferences over item or industry names, so for example, if a user constantly searches for Take That merchandise and that is what you sell, then include the word ‘merchandise’ within your key phrases. This means that once Google gets to know the user, sites selling Take That tickets will not be displayed towards the top as Google knows they want merchandise.

The intent of the user’s search is also taken into consideration. For example, two people may search for designer handbags. One of the searchers is interested in the design aspect and all they do is find suitable designs, download the image and use it for their personal use. They never actually purchase any or look at the product details. The second user however, is simply looking for a brand new handbag to buy and, Google again will pick up on this, so ensure that your product pages and your checkout pages contain different tags and links to make them more applicable in personalised searching.

Lastly, there are people who are enticed by exciting search engine optimisation content such as videos, podcasts and music downloads. Adding other ‘engagement objects’ as they are sometimes called, into your web pages can really make them stand out and rank higher. Of course, your pages will be displayed in the videos and images pages also, however if people are searching for multiple items plus standard content, they are more likely to stick to the standard search engine page.

There was a bit of hue and cry within the search engine optimisation world earlier this year, when it appeared that Google practically eliminated the British way of searching and seemed to replace it with American spellings. The reason this was picked up on and commented on so frequently was because the phrase in question was in fact, search engine optimisation. Or, optimization, as Google prefers. So what is the big deal?  If you open up two pages of Google UK and type in the two differently spelt phrases, the search results you get are completely different, with the exception of a couple of sponsors and our trusty Wikipedia. The problem with this, was that many a web optimisation company found themselves ranking on the first page one day, and then nowhere to be seen the next. That doesn’t look good for a company who is trying to sell its search engine optimisation services.

The question is, is it just this phrase that Google decided it was going to lean towards the American way? At the time it appeared that it was, however a couple of simple searches within Google UK will show you differently. Perhaps understandably Google’s SERPs should display different results in some instances for different spellings, as all they are doing is giving a more relevant search, but with Google being so sophisticated, some would have thought by now that it understood a little more about what the searcher wants.

The Google suggestion tool is a great way of determining what Google thinks is more important, which has obvious implications for search engine optimization. Take a few choice words that have different UK and US spellings. Humour and humor or colour and color are two great examples. If you start typing ‘black humour’ into Google, before you get to the end, all the suggestions Google brings up relate to the American spelling of humor, as opposed to humour.

Before we all step up and become patriotic, it appears that when doing the same exercise with colour, Google actually favours the UK spelling – so maybe there really is no set pattern. It could be argued that the way Google works is that it recognises the most popular searched for phrases and uses those, so in fact it is searchers on Google UK who have created this. Whatever the reason, if it continues it could have a drastic effect on page rankings for specific companies, especially if we do not see it coming.

So what can we do to combat this? The simple answer is to include both spellings of specific phrases within your keywords and key phrases. A good SEO company will know that the word ‘optimisation’ is spelt differently by many people, so this should have been considered already. Nobody is saying that all keywords should offer the US alternative, but just be clever about it and if some of the words and content you use are obvious victims to alternative spellings, then just bear this in mind when updating your keywords and links.

Mobile internet use is increasing at an alarming rate. Initially it was thought that the popularity of social networking sites is what made people use mobile internet more frequently, as they could tweet or update their status wherever they were. Great for telling your friends or social network some funny tale or exciting information, or even just telling them what you are up to. More frequently however, people are using mobile internet for actual internet use and not just for social networking.

This makes mobile internet important for anyone carrying out social media marketing and standard search engine optimisation, as mobile internet use has definitely come into its own. The iPhone without a doubt has a big part to play in this, with the web being so easy to access and users being able to view fuller web pages with fewer limitations, which is what people often found with other mobile internet use.

The iPhone offers various apps which the user can download to make mobile internet use a little bit easier. Some are extremely useful, some are fun, and some are just to make life that little bit easier. It is not surprising then, that the Google app for the iPhone is rather a sophisticated one and the aim of the app is to provide users with their desired results in as few clicks as possible.

Some of the main and more popular features of the Google app are that you have a choice of suggested search, past searches and also links to other Google tools and services. These are some of the main and standard features, but in true Google style, they have taken it a step further.

One of the newest tools to come out of Google app is the ability to voice search. This basically means that all a user has to do is say the search words into their iPhone and Google will automatically search for it and display the results, which will undoubtedly come to have implications for social media. The fact that there is no need for typing means that more specified searches can be made with longer words, in record time. The Google voice search knows to stop searching when you stop speaking, so as long as you say your search in one go, you can achieve very detailed searches.

The other fantastic tool the Google app gives us is location recognition. So for example, if you were looking for listings for Italian restaurants, you would simply need to say Italian restaurants into your iPhone, and Google will automatically display Italian restaurants within the city you are in.

How effective voice search will be, and if it will have an impact on the average SEO company remains to be seen. From the offset it looks incredible, however we all remember when voice recognition was launched on mobiles and we all remember how rarely it worked. Automated voice recognition is a very difficult thing to do, especially with different nationalities and accents, so whilst it is a fantastic idea and when it works, it works well, whether this really will be the future of mobile searching we will have to wait and see.

Just when we thought we had got the hang of increasing our search rankings and building effective links, something changes somewhere and our websites are suddenly knocked off the top spot within Google’s search engine results pages. Sometimes this may be down to changes in market trend or new activity or updates from our competitors. Both of these things we expect and are prepared for, however there are instances when these changes are beyond our control.

As Google strives to be more sophisticated it has been filtering out any websites which are deemed to be using unethical SEO techniques or are not playing by the rules. This is a positive thing and is definitely needed within the world of search engines, however can Google always get it right? The answer is no, and quite often a company may find that their website is knocked off the top spot for no other reason than Google has changed its search criteria.

Nobody really knows the exact formation of the criteria Google used to start with, so when it decides to change these criteria then it becomes increasingly more difficult to monitor and track the effectiveness of your websites. Thankfully, the world of website optimisation has also become more sophisticated and there are several SEO tools available which can help track the way your website is being searched for and decipher what changes you may need to make to keep it top of the SERPs.

One of the most popular SEO tools for this purpose has to be Firebug. In case you are not familiar with this tool, Firebug is basically a Firefox add on that allows you to view any changes to your website and see how it comes across before you actually need to commit to making the changes. This has always been a fantastic tool in terms of web optimisation, however with the more frequent changes to the way in which Google is searching for pages, not to mention the penalties and restrictions it is applying, Firebug can really help these changes be more effective and prevent as many mistakes being made.

With Firebug you can basically edit any tags or links such as HTML or CSS from a website on your own computer. This means you can play around with new ideas and see how they will look and fit in with search engines. The ability to change things on a temporary basis before launching the new site is a great tool but it is important to remember that it is only visible to you at this time and you will need to back up data if you want to share the proposed changes elsewhere.

Firebug is also useful if you are a search engine optimisation company and want to show a client how the changes you want to make will affect their website and change the way in which it is searched for. With a lot of clients being dubious of web optimisation, this is a great way to instil some confidence in them and get the best results.

There are various types of users who search for websites within search engines. Some people will be searching for a specific piece of information and product and will be very descriptive as to what they type in the initial search box. Others however, may not be so sure what they are looking for and will just type the odd word relating to what they are interested in or a couple of possible related words.

The Google suggestion tool is designed to help users in their searches and a lot of the time it probably does. For example, imagine that a person wants to look for steak recipes. They are not entirely sure what type of dish they want to choose, so would put steak into Google, and Google would offer some recommendations as to what specific dish they may want to search for. Brilliant you may think, but if you happen to sell the one dish which Google does not recommend, then you are missing out because of the search engine, not because of the user.

So now not only do we need to aim our search engine optimisation techniques at human users, we also need to second guess what the search engines are going to come up with. Both Yahoo and Bing offer similar suggestion facilities, so with this approach to online searching being set to stay, anybody involved in website marketing needs to be aware of this.

Before the panic sets in, this is not as dramatic or as damaging as it may first seem. Google is all about providing the best service for its users, therefore is guaranteed to be using the most commonly searched for, or popular key phrases. Research is the best way to go about this as is basic keyword identification, and working with Google to see what its strongest suggestions are can ensure that your links are being picked up by the search engines.

It is also worth remembering that it is still human users which are browsing these search engines and as effective and helpful as suggestion tools are, they are not going to replace human searches overnight. There are a lot of people using search engines who know exactly what they are looking for, and they are not going to let Google or Yahoo tell them what to search for.

The other thing to remember is that these search engines do not always get it right, which in turn can actually result in users being forced to put something more specific in. For example, if somebody was searching for apple recipes over steak recipes, then simply putting the world ‘apple’ into a search engine would produce suggestions of iPods and the Apple electronic store. In situations like this, the human user is forced to think more about what they want and almost override the suggestion tool by putting in their own phrase.

Google suggestion is definitely worth considering in your SEO efforts but let’s not underestimate our human users just yet.

Everybody knows Google. In fact one of the defining moments as to when people really understood the stature of Google was back in 2006 when the Oxford English Dictionary announced that Google had been included as a verb. When you know that your company or brand name could be worth six points in a game of countdown, you know you have made it.

The fact that Google is so successful is what makes it so popular, and in turn, its popularity is what makes it so successful. What a fantastic position to be in. For this reason alone, it is easy to understand why a lot of people either embarking on some new search engine optimization techniques or just updating their website effectiveness, turn to Google for help and advice.

Granted, if you are new to the world of search engine optimization or need a bit of a helping hand, Google has some great tools and tips to help you get started. Of course, being the world’s largest online search engine, if anybody knows how to do SEO, Google do.

In a rather ironic turn of events, there have been several identifications of Google not really following its own SEO advice. Of course Google must be doing something right, however if you go back to the basics of web development and creation, is Google actually following its own methods?

If you look at the basic advice Google has to offer for creating a successful website for search engine results pages (SERPs), some of the key things that Google tells us to focus on are title tags and meta tags. Remember the golden rule, your title tag should inform search engines and users what your website or company is and what exactly they do. So, bearing this in mind you would think the title tag for Google would be a little more descriptive than just, Google. Yes that is correct; this one Oxford English Dictionary verb is the actual title tag for this company.

Ok, so you may be wondering what the fuss is, we all understand what Google is, yet surely including the term ‘search engine’ within the title tag would make for a more effective search. The majority of people would search for the Google name, however ironically if a user types ‘search engine’ into the Google search box, Google does not actually appear top. If you do the same on Yahoo, Google does not even appear on the first page.

The same goes with Google’s meta tags, they are barely existent and do not portray the level of detail which Google would tell you to include in yours. Even so, Google is still the biggest, so it must be doing something right?

The fact is that search engine success goes a lot deeper than just your tags and Google is living proof of this. Good content, relevant keywords and strong brand building over time are arguably more important in the long run, maybe Google could improve on this a little, but how much bigger can one company be.

There are many SEO tools which a company can use to measure the effectiveness and success of their website. The problem is that when you mention web analytics to anyone, they often cower away in fear, as the mere phrase can be daunting and is a step into the unknown. Unless you are a professional web design or search engine optimisation company, then the chances are that you are not totally familiar with web analytics.

There is a lot of choice when it comes to web analytics services and dependant upon the extent of knowledge you wish to know about how well your site is working, depends on the depth of service you choose. A really good place to start for SEO is with Google Analytics, if anybody knows website effectiveness it is a Google, and being a user friendly search engine, their system is fairly simple to understand and best of all it is free.

Once you have chosen to use Google Analytics, then you need to understand how to interpret the information it provides you with. Rather than look over the entire data all at once, focus on a few key points that are crucial in measuring your website effectiveness. These are easy to understand and also make it easy to identify where improvements need to be made.

One of the most important pieces of information you want to discover is number of visitors to your website. More importantly, to truly assess the effectiveness of your search engine optimisation campaign you want to know how many actual different people went to your site. Google analytics offers number of ‘unique visitors’ which means if the same person visits your site ten times, it knows to only count them as one unique visitor. This is very effective in measuring search engine success and keyword applicability, as if your quantity of unique visitors is low it means your links are not appearing as much as they should.

As well as knowing how many people are going to your website, it is also good to see where they have linked from. Google Analytics will tell you where those people came to your site from. This is good in determining which search engines are working well for you, and also shows you which backlinks are most successful for search engine optimization.

Web page popularity is also good to know. This basically gives you an indication as to how well each page within your website is operating, which are the most popular and which are perceived as having the best content. If a web page is working well and is one of your most frequent landing pages then consider adding other information on here and adding links to other pages. Any pages not working well maybe need some time spent optimising them.

Google Analytics will tell you how well your keywords are performing. You can identify what key words or phrases used to get to your site. This will then tell you how applicable and relevant your key phrases are, and enable you to tweak them or change them where necessary.

A lot of companies will spend time, effort and money in developing their web pages to make them more user friendly. Details on your main home page or landing pages are crucial if you want visitors to your site to use your website to its full potential and sign up or make a purchase where required. There are a lot of search engine optimisation tools and techniques which companies use to get the best out of their web pages. However, one thing which often is not considered is user visibility.

User visibility refers to how much of the page a person can see in their browser window. The basics of this are the resolution of their screen which you may not think is entirely relevant but when you are used to working on your web pages and viewing them for yourself, it can be difficult to see how a new user would view your site, which is essentially what SEO is all about.

Browsersize is a relatively new application for Google but it is not a new idea altogether. There are other SEO tools available which measure user visibility, for example the web developer plugin from Firefox does a similar thing and allows you to view various resolutions of screen which you can manually adjust yourself. The good thing about Google Browsersize however, is that it gives you a measurement of audience usability and vision and allows you to interact with your site at various sizes.

The best way to get an idea of how Browsersize works and its potential for SEO is to view it for yourself. The tool shows your webpage and then has various shaded contoured areas of the screen which indicates what percentage of people can see that part of your page without having to scroll down or across. The screen is a true to life representation of what a person actually views, and is not just based on the dimensions of their screen or browser window. The results can be quite alarming as in a lot of instances there are quite a high percentage of users who cannot view essential information on your web pages.

The benefit of using Google Browsersize is that it enables you to get the best out of your web pages. The example page you see when you visit Browsersize shows a sample website which requires visitors to donate to a cause. Alarmingly, the results show that 70% of people visiting the site cannot actually see the crucial ‘donate now’ button without having to move down the page. This means that the website could be missing out on hundreds of opportunities to get more donations, as some people will not realise that they need to scroll down and just leave the site.

The changes you may need to make will usually be minimal and would just involve moving certain toolbars or changing text or image size. However these small changes could have a big impact on the productivity of your site and how well search engine optimization works for you.

Anybody embarking on any form of search engine optimization strategy will be educating themselves on what SEO tools and techniques your company can use to increase your page ranking and online traffic to your website. Whilst it is extremely important to learn about search marketing and know what works, it is equally as important to understand what does not work. When it comes to search rankings, it is obviously to make search engines your best friend, so understanding their likes and dislikes is a good way to start.

There are a lot of different search engines available for people to use, however all work in pretty much the same way. Of course, some search engines are based on real time or claim to be more of a ‘decision engine’. However, for argument’s sake let’s focus on Google in terms of what does not work.

Google bases its search ranking on various factors and criteria and there are a few of these factors that it, or most other search engines, will class as a negative factor and could result in your page being penalised. It is difficult to understand completely what Google dislikes as there are a few elements which have been identified as a negative factor from Google’s perspective, so avoiding these methods is a good idea if you want to stay top in your rankings.

One of the biggest techniques which Google dislikes is cloaking. Cloaking is basically the term used for when a website intentionally deceives the search engine by including keywords or links which are either purposefully misleading or completely fake altogether. Companies use cloaking so that they achieve a higher search ranking and an increased click through rate (CTR), however with search engines such as Google becoming more sophisticated, cloaking techniques are being picked upon more and more.

We are also seeing a lot more link buying from companies and although it is not technically banned in the world of search marketing, search engines do not seem to favour it much. Their reason for this is that Google in particular, want to encourage more natural searches and avoid paid for or forced searching.

Google has a strong reputation amongst its users and one of the worst things for your reputation is spam. It is an unfortunate matter of affairs that spam links do sneak into our web pages whether we like it or not, however this is where sufficient management of your website and all links pays off. Always check your sites and your backlinks to ensure they do not send people to spam sites or pages, as this could result in your site getting banned.

Lastly, it is not just what happens in the search engine that matters, what happens when a consumer visits your website is also a consideration. Any websites which are constantly incurring loading errors or sending users to error pages will be deemed as not being user friendly by the search engine, and if you are not serving their customers well, then you will not be liked.