Blog posts filed under "Search engines"

It is very difficult to achieve a decent search engine ranking for a web page without having incoming links from other websites. The search engines need to know that your page is relevant to others and incoming links prove that. In a way, it's like a popularity contest, however, with search engines it's not just the number ofincoming links that matter, it's the quality of those links and quality is about relevance and authority. Links from poor quality or questionable websites will actually damage your rankings. In this article we'll look into links in more detail and see how to acquire valuable ones that help build your search presence.

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If you want your business to get noticed in the search engines, there are 2 main approaches. Firstly, SEO (search engine optimisation) which aims to improve the position that pages from your site achieve within the 'organic' or free listings. The other approach is to use a form of digital advertising (called PPC or Pay Per Click) to place ads for your site at the top of the search engine listings. As the name implies, you pay for each click on your ad. Both of these approaches have pros and cons and which one you use will depend on your circumstances (or you may chose to use a combination of both). This article goes into some more detail about the advantages and disadvantages of each approach so you can make an informed decision about which to use.

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Google wants to make sure that the pages that it places in the search results answer searchers queries in ways that show experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness. It certainly doesn't want to serve up content that is weak, dubious or possibly fraudulent. In this post, we go into some more detail about these three quality factors (known as E-E-A-T) and show how you can write content that meets these quality criteria in a more effective way.

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There is something simple that you can do to help counteract the climate emergency that we are experiencing - change the search engine you use. Ecosia is an easy-to-use and effective search engine that uses the money it makes to plant trees all over the world. All search engines make money from adverts placed on the search results pages and Ecosia is no exception. What makes them different is how they use that money. Find out more about Ecosia and how to make the switch (it's simple). You can feel good about every search you make, knowing that trees are being planted because of that simple action.

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The start of a new year is a good time to review the effectiveness of your website. Is it still fit for purpose? Does it bring new leads? Are you making enough sales through the website? Does it still look good and make a positive impression on potential clients? Is it secure and mobile-friendly? As we all know, the internet world changes rapidly and what worked well last year may well not work so well this year. With all that in mind, this article gives you 7 solid reasons why you might want a get a new website or make some changes to your existing site.

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Starting in June 2021 (originally scheduled for May), Google are introducing some changes to how they rank page in the search results. Page experience will play a larger part and there are 3 new metrics, collectively referred to as Core Web Vitals, which will impact how page experience in measured. Pages that offer a better experience to users will, all other factors being equal, rank higher that those which don't. This post explains what these factors are, how to measure them and how to improve your scores.

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Keyword research is an important first step in helping to get your web pages found in the search engines. Find out how to use keywords in your content and also learn about the anatomy of a search engine result and how you can encourage people to click.

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This article looks at the growing usage of mobile devices to access the internet and proposes a series of actions to be taken by businesses to improve the effectiveness of their website for these devices. This includes ways of checking if your site is mobile friendly, thoughts about page load speed, AMP pages and search engine optimisation.

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It seems that Google will be promoting mobile friendly websites even more strongly very soon according to an article in the Guardian today.

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It’s rare these days that we implement a new website for an organisation that has no existing web presence so, when putting the new site live, suitable consideration needs to be given to the old site. It is essential that we preserve the value that has been accumulated in the old site as far as possible. We also want to be able to monitor the benefits that the client gains from the new site. These are some of the activities that we undertake when putting a new website live.

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I’ve come across a few business owners recently who believe that, because they have a website, they have done what is necessary to get new business using the internet. Then, when little or no business arrives via the website, they conclude that the internet is no good for acquiring new customers or it’s not appropriate for their business. What they miss is that often the design of their website is inappropriate for their business or that the content is inadequate. Visitors judge your business by the quality of your website. Let’s look at what’s really needed.

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This post was prompted by a number of conversations I have had lately with business owners who believe that Search Engine Optimisation is one or more of:

• Really hard
• Really expensive
• Ineffective
• Not needed anyway

The truth is that SEO is needed most of the time and it can be very effective without the need to spend a lot of money. In fact, there’s a lot you can do without the need for any external help at all.

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It goes without saying that the position your business’s web pages appear in the Google search results will affect the number of visitors your site attracts. What you may not be aware of is that Google have recently started making another change in the way that they decide the order in which to show their results for any given search phrase. Google can now make an accurate assessment of whether your site is adapted to work well on smaller screens as well as larger ones. Based on that assessment, they are now starting to prioritise sites that work well on mobiles and de-prioritise those that don’t. This will affect your site if it is not mobile friendly.

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Many website owners know their site is not bringing in the business it should but they’re not sure why or what to do about it. They’re unwilling to pay for a new website as they may just end up in the same situation. A useful step to take in these circumstances is to commission a website review which will examine all aspects of the site. Our independent website reviews provide a prioritised list of actions that a business can take to improve its website so as to bring in more business and achieve the desired return on investment.

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In this post I want to touch on some factors which influence web page speed i.e. how quickly a web page appears on your screen. Clearly this is important for visitors to your site who don’t want to be kept waiting while the page loads. However, it’s also important because Google uses page load speed as one of the factors that determine where the page is placed in the search results.

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Just over a month ago now, we launched a new web site for Alison Plant, an experienced Pilates instructor in Leeds. As you would expect, the web site looks great and works well on screens of all sizes, from larger desktop monitors to mobile smartphones.

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There are a number of advantages of using video on your business website. Not only does it help make a stronger connection with site visitors it can help improve search engine rankings. However, it needs to be done properly and that is the subject of this post.

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