Category: Google


What is Link Building?

Link building is a SEO method that involves establishing relevant inbound links to your website. An inbound link, otherwise known as a backlink, is from another website to your site (not to be confused with out-bound links, which are the other way around!). Backlinks can help you to achieve higher rankings within Google and the other search engines.

This technique works well to improve rankings for many websites, as Google sees backlinks as a ‘vote of confidence’ from other sources on the web. The number of backlinks increasing over time is seen by the search engines as your site gaining popularity, and therefore relevance for the user. This in turn pushes up your rankings.

It’s likely that if your site has been established for a while; it will already have a certain number of backlinks that have been created naturally. For example, one of your customers may have posted a link to your site in a forum. SEO link building must function in a similar way for it to be successful – it needs to be (or at least appear) as organic and natural as possible for Google sit up and take notice.

It’s not the quantity of inbound links to your site that matters, it’s the quality. Spammy links from dodgy sources will not do your SEO efforts any favours. The search engine algorithms are engineered to sniff out these types of links, and it’s likely that Google et al will get better at this over time. If the search engine crawlers believe that your site has employed unethical link building practices to achieve a higher ranking, your site may be penalised and you could lose those rankings you’ve worked so hard for.

Don’t let our warning put you off however, as eSterling can offer a quality link building service that is reliable and effective.  Our team of experts work hard to ensure that all of the links built for your website will help to boost your rankings. We have already achieved some dramatic improvements for our current clients, with one client jumping 40 positions within Google for the keyword ‘scrap metal Birmingham’.

To find out more about the eSterling link building service, please give Cassandra a call on 0121 766 4080 or email cassandra.lilly@esterling.co.uk.

Is your website ready for the Boxing Day rush?

According to Experian Hitwise the busiest day for online retailers in 2010 wasn’t in the run up to Christmas – it was Boxing Day.

Online Retailers in the UK saw traffic levels rise 12% higher than pre-Christmas Traffic Peaks. The second busiest day was the day after – the 27th December. It seems that a lot of turkey-stuffed shoppers are beating the queues and shopping in online sales, rather than hitting the high street.

If you haven’t already thought about how to attract visitors to your website over the festive season, then it’s not too late for a pay-per-click campaign. Trying Google Adwords could be one the best ways to turn some of this festive traffic into conversions for your website. We still have some Google Adwords vouchers available if you want to give it a try, so call us today!

Conversion Rate Optimisation

Here are some simple ways to increase you ROI via conversion rate optimisation.

1. Be Relevant

Your ad text or meta description should always be relevant so the user will know what to expect when they arrive on your website. There is no point making wild claims that are not reflected on the site as this will just lead to poor bounce rates. Make sure that you use the keyword in your H1 title as this will help with both users and search engines. Perhaps one of the most vital points to consider in term of relevancy for the user is to use an accurate image. All to often I see generic images used on eCommerce sites, this will do nothing to improve sales. Always use your keywords in crawlable areas of the page as well utilising keywords in the domain if you can.

2. Proposition

You must quickly and simply portray your business proposition to your customer, frame the product or service in your opening text, ensure you prioritise your key features and benefits, consider the best way to get your point across – text, image, Video? Next try to see it from your customers point of view, see if you can handle any objections or concerns they may have about purchasing from you. One final point to consider is not to overwhelm the the user, do not be tempted to bombard them with too much information – an alternative may be to include downloadable demo, white papers or fact sheets. Always use a call to action.

3. Trust

The more trust your site can instill in the user the more sales it will make. This statement is so true for on-line shops. This can be done by the site itself as well as in the promotion of your company brand and the product/service brand. Your main enemies here are scepticism brought about by lack of information, not including reputable 3rd party ratings/awards and badges, and not have an SSL or payment system from a good provider. Try to use trust inspiring text, for example point it out if you have secure check out system, include testimonials in either text or video format. In terms of the web design you need to have a clean and tidy looking site, it should look professional and not rushed or cheap.

4. Understand User Intent

Try to find out what your typical customer responds to, try varied approaches and stick with the one that works best. You could try a  softer call to actions or a harder approach, you may wish to experiment with different web designs and ways of presenting data, perhaps you will convert better if you can engage with the customer in a phone call? The key with all the things you try to is to ensure that you have a tested it in a fair way and to measure your success.  Once you have a good amount of data you can choose the best way to proceed in terms of your customers intent.

5. Remove Distractions

Remember that the more obstacles you put between the moment a user enters your site and the point of sale the more likley it is that the sale will not complete. Your sales process should be simple, linear and as easy as possible. Common issues are including global navigation on your PPC landing pages, not using technology’s like JQuery to stop users from leaving the sales funnel by utilising tabbed pages of JS overlays to keep users on the page,  off topic text and distracting images, asking for too much information from the user just to make the sale.

To find out more about conversion rate optimisation, get in touch with us here at eSterling.

Google+ for Businesses

This week Google have launched a new feature on Google+, called Google+ Pages. This allows businesses to set up Google+ accounts as a way for them to interact with their customers through Google’s social network.

Up to now Google+ has been purely a people-to-people social network, but this is the internet giant’s first attempt at using the network to connect people to businesses.

The pages are similar to company pages on Facebook and will work in similar way. Customers can already +1 your page providing you have a +1 button on your web site, but now they can also add you to their “Circles”. This means they will be kept up to date with whatever you put on your Google+ pages.

At this early stage in it’s life, it remains to be seen if Google+ will be able to compete with Facebook in terms of user numbers, but with 40 million users already registered for Google+  it is another viable way for your business to connect with a massive potential customer base.

If you want to get your business on Google+ or wish to discuss any aspects of using social networks to connect with potential and existing customers give us a call and speak to one of our social media experts.

November is upon us and that can only mean one thing – it’s practically Christmas! Consumers are sure to start their Christmas shopping in the next few weeks and many people will be turning to online stores to beat the queues.

A recent study by e-commerce data quality experts at Postcode Anywhere polled a thousand UK consumers. The results show that while 25% of consumers plan to buy more Christmas presents online this year than last, only 5% will reduce their online spend.

Postcode Anywhere’s sales and marketing director Phil Rothwell said, “With 5% set to reduce spend and 25% to spend more, all things being equal, retailers could well be looking at a rise of around 20% in online sales this Christmas, a similar increase to last year. This is a fairly significant finding, but possibly not a surprising one given the circumstances.”

If you own an e-commerce website you should be thinking about how you can maximise seasonal sales. An easy way to do this is to start an Adwords campaign, which allows you to advertise on Google quickly and simply. You can choose your own monthly budget and even control when your ad appears.

If you already have an Adwords campaign, you should think about increasing your budget from now until January to maximise Christmas sales. Don’t forget that many consumers will be looking for great deals in January as well!

Here at eSterling we can provide you with assistance with Adwords, so if you would like to find out more please get in touch.

Is it fair that Google likes paid links?

I’ve been asking this question to our SEO team for a while now. Why is it that Google ‘likes’ links? And how can this be fair?

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of ‘links’, here’s some background information:

  • Links (also known as backlinks) are from another site to your site
  • Links can help your Google rankings because ‘they are a useful way of measuring a site’s value’
  • The quantity and quality of links count towards your site’s rating

Google’s official guidelines state that links should be from trusted sources and should not be bought and sold illegitimately. This is part of Google’s commitment to make search results fair.

But in reality there is very little sanctioning to determine which links are legitimate and which aren’t. This means that successfully ranking sites often have links from what could only be described as ‘dodgy’ sources and are not penalised at all. Therefore many webmasters continue to buy their links from questionable sources simply because they are getting results.

As buying large quantities of links ultimately comes down to money, then companies with a higher budget can achieve better rankings. But isn’t this at the expense of search relevance?

So how can Google root out this practice? The trouble is that links are an SEO factor that is out of the webmaster’s control. In theory, you can’t help who links to your site and this means there is potential for interference from competitors should Google crack-down on ‘bad’ links.

This leaves Google with a conundrum. Either Google accepts that all links are a ‘vote of confidence’ from other users and gives them all a green light (no matter their legitimacy); or Google decides to ban all links (no matter the relevancy). Or perhaps, and in my opinion, the ‘right’ way would be to use a clever algorithm to root out those links that are irrelevant.

Unfortunately, SEO companies have very little control over Google’s decisions. We have to move with the times and do what Google says (and not necessarily as they do). But is the integrity of search being spoiled by this factor? I would certainly welcome your comments on links and how they should affect SEO rankings.

I’d forgive you if you didn’t believe this headline (I had to check April Fools Day hadn’t come early myself!), yet it’s true – the Hammer-pants-wearing entrepreneur has launched his very own search engine.

It’s called WireDoo and MC Hammer is hoping that it will revolutionise search in the same way that Google has. The concept of WireDoo isn’t bad – Mr Hammer calls the way it works a ‘deep search’ and hopes it will return results based on relational topics.

MC Hammer, real name Stanley Kirk Burrell, discussed this in more detail at the Web 2.0 Summit inSan Francisco. He explained that today’s search engines work by connecting keywords (search terms) to one topic (not an entirely accurate view I must add). However, MC Hammer believes that when you search for a home, you will want to see information about the surrounding community, schools and crime statistics etc. And this is exactly what WireDoo claims to achieve, hence the tagline is “Search once and see what’s related.”

The rapper didn’t reveal much more about the how the search engine will work in practice and we’ll have to wait a little longer to try it for ourselves as it is currently in pre-beta. You can however sign-up to get access to WireDoo as soon as it’s ready.

Taking on Google will no-doubt be a tough one for MC Hammer and if he wants to prove he’s ‘Too Legit to Quit’ he’ll have to be prepared for a rough ride. Toppling Google has so far proved difficult for big-hitters such as Yahoo and Bing and many other failed projects (who remembers HotBot, AltaVista and Infoseek?).

However, if MC Hammer’s project does take off, eSterling will be the first to let you know. You Can’t Touch This!

Google teams up with Citizens Advice Bureau

Google, in partnership with the Citizens Advice Bureau, have launched an excellent new site called ‘Good to know’. The site aims to provide tips and advice about online security and privacy issues to users of all levels to help them protect their personal information on the web. Check out the site for yourself here.

The site offers advice on a range of issues from choosing online passwords, password strength and signing out of web sites correctly to more advanced issues such as secure sites, SSLs and cookies.

As you would expect from Google the site is well designed and easy to use, all the information is written in a way that can be understood by all levels of user, almost all the advice given comes with a tutorial video to explain the issues further and there are many links to other sites that you may find useful. There is also a handy Jargon Buster section for those who don’t know their spam from their cookies.

This site is an invaluable resource for almost all internet users, but it is also very useful for anyone who owns a web site. Web site owners (particularly those with ecommerce sites) should take a look at the Good to Know site and assess if their own sites conform to the advice given by Google about safe sites. If your site does not conform to Google’s advice then you may lose credibility; but more importantly you may also lose potential customers who do not trust your site enough to make purchases on it.

If you feel your site does not conform to the advice given on Good to Know or you want to discuss any specific issues around the security of your web site, give us a call and we will be happy to advise you of ways you can increase the security of your site.

Having worked with many clients over the years, I’ve noticed that many people are still using old, out of date versions of their web browser. Many of them don’t even realise how much they are missing out on!

Most web developers and major companies have dropped support for older browsers like ie6, so some sites will not display how they are intended to. Although all good web developers will insert alternative code for older browsers to display correctly, a lot of new technologies will only work in new browsers

For example, all those nice rounded corners and shadows on your new design will not appear in older browsers without a lot of extra work and code that will slow down your sites performance. You could be missing so many features on your own or your favourite website without even knowing it!

The more you stay up to date, the more it will push the web industry to give a more innovative experience to you, the user.

Older browsers are also more and more vulnerable to modern threats. Of course you shouldn’t just rely on a browser to protect you, but an older browser can be an easy way in for these threats – so why not update?

The best part is that all of the major browser updates are free to download, so there really is no reason not to keep up to date and take advantage of all the great new features out there!

Are paid links bad for my website?

I often hear people in the SEO world saying all paid links are bad news. If you’re buying links from link farms or spammy sites then Google may penalise your website, but there are also a lot of good quality links out there that are up for grabs.

These could include links generated through press releases, directory listings, article submissions or adverts. All of these sources create links that will bring relevant traffic to your website. They are also available from genuine sources. So why should Google penalise you for paying for these links?

In fact, Google likes to see your site being given a ‘thumbs-up’ by other websites, as this shows positive interaction with your brand. Think of the times you’ve shared a link to a site with a friend because you’ve found it helpful, or fun, or interesting…

So next time you hear the term paid links don’t automatically think ‘bad’, because there are a number of paid links that could be beneficial to your website. Simply give us a call for more information about how to create good quality links to improve your Google rankings.

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