It is important that once your site has been found on the search engines that the end user can easily navigate and start their enquiry. This is all down to a good quality web design. Your website is the first point on contact that your potential client has with you, you need to ensure that it represents and presents your company in the best possible light.

With the skill sets that Creare has developed over the years, we now can create visually impressive sites that perform well for extremely competitive search terms. This is down to the combination of various mark up languages along with good graphical and SEO knowledge.

Search Engine Optimisation can be implemented honestly and effectively without an impact on the quality of the content. We also have specific content writers who can ensure that the text reads freely and makes sense to both the search engines and a user.

After an intensive training programme into internal and external search engine optimisation, research led me to the question that continues to intrigue SEO consultants, when is it viable to include a “pay per click” campaign into a failing organic site? In many ways it would be quite easy to spend customers money to achieve this goal.  However, there lies the quandary, is PPC the best way to improve traffic ratings or is it just a ‘quick fix’ or ‘patch’ to failing ‘Organic’ campaign?
I have recently read reports from various resources that inform potential on-line businesses the ‘Opportunity’ of using “pay per click” services provided by many search engines and directories such as Google and Yahoo. They guarantee to achieve the highest desired position on the front pages of many of the major search engines. Many might say ‘a lively marketplace, the higher you bid, the higher your advertisement will be displayed in the list’. There lies another important question at what cost is this achievable and who truly benefits from this route, is it the customer, or is the providers, or is the ‘cake’ big enough for all. I do believe that the way forward for SEO will be a combination of both ‘PPC’ and ‘Organic’ routes as long as the campaign has solid foundations with sound SEO basics.

Things to avoid when building or optimising a web site, this list covers what Google identifies as the types of spam, along with tips on how to identify them. The following topics will be covered in this article:

• PPC Pages
• Parked Domains
• Thin Affiliates
• Hidden text & links
• Javascript Redirects
• Keyword stuffing
• 100% Frame
• Sneaky Redirects

PPC Pages - These pages contain no or very little content of any value and are often full of PPC (pay per click) advertisements. These can also look very similar to a search engine, blog or forum.

Parked Domains - Defined as a parked or expired domain these may include; a list of sponsored links or maybe a list of categories that relate to popular search terms. Usually all links are paid and there is no original content present.

Thin Affiliates - These pages or sites are designed to become affiliates of other sites. They work by attracting users to a specific page and re-direct the users to a different page or site owned by a real merchant.

Hidden text & links - The text may be hidde, therefore invisible to the human eye. This could also be that the text colour is very close to the background color and therefore intentionally not easy to spot by the human eye. Small font sizes, that can’t be seen by a user and any information that is hidden by the use of javascript or CSS.

Javascript Redirects - This is where Javascript is used to display a different web site for the user than that the search engine indexes.

Keyword stuffing - Excessive amount of keywords on a single site or page in the form of word repeats, related words and misspelling. Just be user friendly, natural wording is the best way to achieve search engine friendliness.

100% Frame -  Allows a search engine to index 2 frames of content, where as the user only sees 1 frame.

Sneaky Redirects - This is where the user is directed to a different domain or URL, but the search engine indexes the original domain, which may have different more user friendly content. Often used for pornographic content.

Recently i have been looking at different sides of search engines and trying to find ways of manipulating algorithms with specific search queries to gain beneficial data through information retrieval. Although this can seem very intense while trying to decode the processes and the variables taken into consideration with search engine algorithms, it has lead me back to one of the basics of seo (search engine optmisation).

When first learning the science of SEO, you come across various methods that help to break down both your own sites and your competitors. These little insights are building blocks which confirm and deny any theories your may have.

Most of you will have used or at least touched upon these search queries. Google, Yahoo and MSN allows users to gain information from their search facility, but i will just look at the ones related to Google and Yahoo.

Google:

link:www.yourdomain.com
Explained : This shows all of the links that Google has indexed pointing to your domain, as most of us know the yahoo version of this is more comprehensive.

site:www.yourdomain.com
Explained: This shows the indexed pages of your site. note: if there are pages missing consider pinging your sitemap.

related:www.yourdomain.com
Explained: Industry and Company related search results.

allintitle: Keyphrase
Explained: Shows all the websites indexed by Google that have that specific phrase in the title.

allintext: Keyphrase
Explained: Shows all the indexed websites by Google that mention that phrase in the main body content of their site.

allinurl: Keyphrase
Explained: Pretty self explainiaty, but all the indexed sites that have the specific keyphrase in the domain name.

info: www.yourdomain.com
Explained: This search provides information about latest index, similar results and pages linked to your site.

Yahoo!

site: www.yourdomain.com
Explained: This shows the indexed pages of your site. note: if there are pages missing consider pinging your sitemap.

linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com
Explained: Displays all the backward links pointing towards your domain. note: Joost De Valk’s Plugin is really handy.

[www.yourdomain.com -linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com]
Explained: Provide links that display just your URL and not any keyword rich links.

These queries can be used to benefit the analysis of competitors and i am certain that there are more available. You can also apply various combinations of queries to narrow and specify your search result.

Just as a warning the figures that are giving through these queries should not be taken as 100% correct, more of a ball park figure. Any additions you have to the search engine queries would be greatly appreciated.

Resources

http://yoast.com/seo-tools/link-analysis/

http://lornali.com/internet-marketing/7-google-advanced-search-operators-for-seo

The volume of people using search engines to find the ideal product, answer or solution, can make it difficult for businesses to compete with others for that important top spot in a search engine. It is important for businesses to understand how consumers use search engines before knowing how to gain the best results from their search engine optimisation.
Fortunately research has found a system that breaks the different types of search query down into three areas; Navigational Search, Informational Search and Transactional Search. With this knowledge it is easier for companies to understand what they need to do to make their site comply with their consumers search method.

These are the three search types;

Navigational Search:
A navigational search is a specified search and is successful if your product is a specific brand name. Searches like ‘Oakley Sunglasses’ means that that those websites optimising for that brand would appear above all the others so for smaller companies it is not necessarily the best way to optimise your site as it is highly competitive against other more commercial companies.

Informational Search:
This is a better way for small businesses to optimise their site. They can aim to rank highly for a simple phrase and make it more plausible.  A couple of words creating a generic phrase are far more successful than depending on brand names to get traffic to a site. Phrases such as “wood flooring Bristol” can be far more effective for businesses rather than a brand of wood flooring. The risk of using a brand is that it is likely to be supplied by big chain stores nationwide that already have a good amount of traffic to their site.

Transactional Search:
These searches are far more specific and contain a lot of words that identify what a consumer wants in finer detail. For example “companies that sell cheap, authentic, silver bracelets.”  All of the sites that contain these words will come up in the search engine results and your company may be there but the amount of people using this method of searching are fewer than the others.

It is important for any company when using search engine optimisation to understand their consumers and the methods they may use for searching the web. It is vital to ensure they optimise for this specific method to beat their competitors to page one number one.