So this article is about what NOT to invest your SEO time into.

First up? Meta Keywords…

Once upon a time, this were key(words) in a website and simple search engines would use them to identify the content of websites. Over time web developers became smart to this and would start to be inaccurate or misleading information in the meta keywords in order to boost their website to the top of the search engines (and SEO was born!). These days, search engines are a lot smarter and wiser to tricks like these and as a result, companies such as Google have categorically stated that they ignore Meta Keywords. So there really is no point in playing around with them. At least for now.

Anything else? Only Facebook really…

With the increase in Social Networking (or as the techies call it: Web 2.0), there has also been an increase in the use of Social Networking to help promote business using SEO. For example, adding a Twitter feed to a website can be a perfect way to keep your site updating – without the need for a Content Management System. People are also using Facebook as embedded widgets to a website, to enable people to “like” or joining their Facebook Page, Group or Profile. So in these Web 2.0 times, it’s worth noting that anything that is Facebook embedded to a website will most-likely by ignored by Google. Partly because of the way in which it works and partly because Google recognises it’s linked out to another part of web.

In short, Facebook Pages can help – but embedding widgets and links within your site, won’t make it better or worse.

This article was adapted from Quoakle Web Media‘s website.

Social indicators have become an important factor for SEO – especially with the release and (somewhat hopeful) web integration of Google +1.

Whereas in the past Google would analyse sites to test their popularity – now they have a simple and effective way of doing it. Seeing how many Facebook, Twitter (or the likes) users have given it a thumbs up, Tweet or Like.

Between Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linked In, Stumble Upon and other social networking sites, Google easily see which content/websites people are actually finding interesting, valuable and worth sharing – by simply monitoring the amount of times URLs for those sites are liked, re-tweeted and +1′ed!

With this in mind, it is more important than ever to allow your websites’ visitors the ability to “like”, share and +1 your pages.
A popular competitive analysis service online (serpIQ) includes the following aspects in it’s “Social factors” score:
- Facebook likes
- Twitter mentions
- Linked In Shares
- Google +1s
- Diggs
- Delicous Bookmarks
- StumbleUpon Stumbles
While it’s not possible to give you a number to aim for with these different metrics, you should try to maximise each number whenever you have the chance.

This article was adapted from Quoakle Web Media‘s website.

The truth is that Google’s AdWords keyword tool holds t he monopoly when it comes to working out your Keywords – so for more information on that, see our dedicated article on Google Adwords Keyword Tool. But firstly, here’s a brief overview on what Keywords are.

Imagine you are looking to find a Web Designer in Shoreham. The first thing you would type into Google would be exactly that – Web Designer Shoreham. This is perfect if you are searching. But what if you were a Web Designer In Shoreham? Isn’t there a lot of competition? Yes! Which is where the Keywords come in. Clever research into the exact phrases that are typed into Google can help you find an alternative solution is Web Designer Shoreham is simply too over-run with SEO geniuses. The change may be as simple as Web Design Shoreham, or Website in Shoreham. But subtle changes in the keywords can save you time and produce valuable results.

How is this research carried out? My answer in short would be Google Adwords Keyword Tool. It enables you to find the perfect combination of words that will boost the SEO on your site. Read more about it here: Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

On a more general basis, you should be trying to go for searches that you expect to be able to reach the top 3 positions within the Google results page. You should also be determining the viability of targeting these keywords simply based on the fact that around 42 percent of all visitors to Google Search Engine Results Pages will only ever visit the first listed website on the result list. Crazy eh? Although – I’m the same if I’m honest.

So as a rule of thumb, don’t ever target a keyword that puts you below the front page. And even then, you want to be as high up as possible.

It’s worth analysing the links that point to your site (using keywords) using certain online tools. Yahoo site explorer was once a key tool, but unfortunately has become somewhat unreliable of recent years due to the vast success of Google. You can get yourself a free membership of Majestic SEO. This is good whether you are completing a competitive analysis yourself or not. They allow you to get in-depth reporting as you would be able to do for any domain with one of their premium memberships. Another way of obtaining this sort of reporting would be through a serviceprovider on a website like Fiverr.com.

This article was adapted from Quoakle Web Media‘s website.

RSS feeds. They are often under-played and under-rated. Perhaps you’ve never heard of RSS, perhaps you think you know, perhaps not. Basically, it stands for Really Simple Syndication and its literally making a feed of content. Imagine Facebook lists, one for your friends, one for your family, one for your work mates – will RSS is the same but for a given website, podcast or business. People will find a RSS feed on a website, subscribe to it, and then when new posts are uploaded, they get notified automatically! Simple indeed. And clever too.

How can I get Internet Traffic to my site from a RSS Feed?

Well firstly, lets look at how to integrate it. That may help you understand how it will help traffic.
Follow these easy steps to integrate a RSS feed into your site.

1.      Firstly, create a feed for your static website using Feedity.com

2.      Then, post the feed URL (from Feedity) to the feed aggregator site Feedagg.com

You will only have to use the Feedity facility if you have a static web-page. If you have a blog, you can go straight to step 2.
Simply take the RSS feed URL using the little orange radar-looking button from your blog.

And how does RSS SEO work?

Consider this:

1.      Google and RSS are bff’s! Since most major spam sites won’t use RSS, Google knows that a site with an RSS is more likely to be real! Therefore, Google will drive traffic to your site because it thinks (and rightly so…) you are a decent site. It simply looks natural.

2.      Google loves blogs too! And, since blogs have RSS feeds built in, the two go together. Google will start to think you are a blog, even if you aren’t, when you are using RSS feeds.

How can I utilise this ?

Since RSS feeds aren’t considered as a popular method for SEO, you can utilise it cleverly. Simply set-up a network of a few blogs and then use aggregators, such as Feedagg, to gain new links each time you make a post to your blog. Clever eh?
Sure, it may be time consuming, but it’s free – but it does keep Google up to date with your site.

We aren’t joking, give it a try and watch it work!

This article was adapted from Quoakle Web Media‘s website.

It’s unarguable, the truth is that Google is the biggest search engine on the Internet to date. No matter what has tried to rival it over the years, Google has come out on top. With that in mind, it’s nice when Google throws you a bone so-to-speak, simply because Google knows what they are talking about when it comes down to Search Engine Optimisation.

Googles results are, realistically, the results you need to care about when it comes to SEO, so it’s a safe conclusion to say that their search results are a reliable source of information. They realise this and that’s where the Google Keyword Tool comes into play.

To start off, enter a keyword or phrase and click the search button. Once you click, the Google Keyword Tool will take that term and use its massive back catalogue of search histories to show you terms or phrases that are related to the one you entered.

Lets use an example, if I type Online Golf Tuition, the Google Keyword Tool will return information on a number of things:

1) how vast the competition is for the key phrase (ranging from low to very high).

2) Statistics that surround the key phrase (“Global monthly searches”, “Local monthly searches” and so on…)

3) Related key phrases or keywords based on other previous searches by users (in our example case, “Golf Coaching Courses” & “Golf Academies” etc etc)

4) Then also the statistics that surround each of these secondary key phrases (competition level, Global monthly searches, Local monthly searches etc.)

But what does this mean for my site?

The Google Keyword Tool is extremely useful for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, because it is free! But on top of that, it can really help you achieve a higher level of SEO on your website and, in turn, will help boost you up the Google page. Here’s just a few things it will make you aware of:

a) It will help you learn the level of competition to your term. Unfortunately, sometime you will be up against giants on the Google Rankings. If I wanted to promote my new Cola drink, I would have some heavy competitors to say the least. But don’t loose heart at this point!

b) It will teach you alternative terms and phrases. Through the use of the related terms, you’ll be able to work out terms that aren’t in such high competition. Within the tool, using the global and local statistics will help you work out which is the best option to take. For example, if I was trying to publicise  ”my little business in Brighton”‘s website, the local statistics would be crucial for me. This saves me using keywords that aren’t relvant to the target market I’m aiming for.

c) Now… repeat! (until streamlined) (and let’s face it, we can always be more streamlined on our sites) I would then repeat this process a few times, simply because the terms you are finding will send you in some interesting directions and you will learn what people are searching fo along the way.

In short, with the Google Keyword Tool, the balance that you will want to aim for is:
Low competition.
As high global or local search count.
As simple to search for as possible (i.e. a phrase people obviously search for).

This article has been adapted from the original at Quoakle Web Marketing.