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What Is SEO and How How Has It Changed Over the Years?

Many business owners will here hear the phrase ‘search engine optimisation’ (or SEO) from friends in the business community or even competitors and may consider it as a route to increasing sales, but what is SEO? Alternatively, a business owner may have tried ‘SEO services’ in the past and found it either didn’t work as well as expected or was working, but no longer as effective – this article explains what SEO is, and why ‘new’ SEO is working better than ever.

I have been working in search engine optimisation and ranking website market, before it was even called SEO. Here are the changes in SEO since the start of the new millennium and what you should be looking for in the SEO services that your SEO Agency offers or provides.

We take a look back at SEO through the years and explain what SEO is today and how best to utilise it for our website.

SEO in 2000

Back at the start of the Millennium the ‘big’ search engines that most people were using were Lycos and Excite. Of course, back then a very small percentage of the UK population had access to the internet and those that did had a slow ‘dial-up’ system.

Websites were one or two pages with basic information to allow them to load quickly (within 20 seconds). SEO practices back then were to ‘hide’ as many keywords on a page as possible, so the website was found for those searches without making the page look to spammy for visitors.

In 2002 Google launched something called ‘AdWords’ and it was predicted to be the death of SEO, as people could pay for prominence, on the now the number 1 website for starting internet searches.

In 2003, Yahoo purchased Inktomi, AltaVista and FAST, which was basically the end of all of the ‘smaller’ search engines. Google started to stamp down on ‘spam’ practices and websites. At the same time Google realised that ‘AdWords’ were not going to kill off SEO and that in fact the ‘natural listings’ encouraged visitors back to their search engine platform. Google started to recognise ‘professional SEO’ experts and promoted good SEO rather than spamming SEO.

2004 saw the first website ‘banned’ from the internet as Google took action against websites that were spamming them. They also took legal action against the “SEO Company” responsible.

To rank a website in 2006 you just needed links back to your website and so buying links / link exchange was all the rage and most websites had a web page where they would list companies and links to their website (I am still amazed how many websites continue this practice).

Between 2004 and 2008 Google, now was the only real “player” in the search engine world, started taking action against poor linking practices and companies and started tightening up on spam and buying links. The ‘Noughties” ended with all “naughty” SEO practices being practically stamped out, as Google concentrated on ranking websites based on their content and it’s relevance to the search being carried out.

SEO in 2010

Between 2010 and 2015 we started to see the search engines take notice of ‘Social Media’ sites and soon the results were filled with Twitter ‘tweets’ in the results. (I can still see the face of one of my customers when searching Google for his business, and the whole first page of the search results were compiled of tweets of a Twitter conversation that two members of staff had been having about how terrible the company was!)

Videos and images were also brought in to the search results with the Google ‘Caffeine’ update.

Google introduced “personal search results” with the websites shown in the search results based on your previous searches and websites you had visited before. This caused a ‘bit of a stir’ in the SEO world as customers claimed their websites were “top of Google” for any search they did related to their industry, just because they had visited their own website many times before, so Google of course fed them back the website for all relevant searches. This can still be a bit of an issue until you show them the new ‘Google Incognito search’.

The focus on ranking websites was on being found for BIG keywords. A ‘Plumber’ in Bristol would want to rank for that search, and so that was the focus.

Google ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’ updates figuratively killed off ‘link exchanges’ with huge penalties for websites who had irrelevant links pointing towards them. At the same time Google introduced “no follow links” to allow websites to provide relevant links to other websites and information without penalising either party. It was the start of “safe linking”. Quality and relevant content was now the key to ranking in the search engines.

A report by the ‘Office For National Statistics’ in 2014 stated:

38 million adults (76%) in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day, 21 million more than in 2006, when directly comparable records began.
Access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2014, from 24% to 58%.
74% of all adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008. Clothes (49%) were the most popular online purchase in 2014.
Of all adults in Great Britain, 67% are aware of Internet storage space services, but the take up of these services to store data is much lower at 35%.
In Great Britain, 22 million households (84%) had Internet access in 2014, up from 57% in 2006.
Fixed broadband Internet connections were used by 91% of households.

The UK was now (almost) internet savvy and usage of mobile phones to visit websites was huge.

SEO 2015 and Onwards

The biggest change to the search engines in 2015 was the ‘penalisation’ of websites that were not “mobile friendly” – a mobile friendly website has different information for the smaller screen to make it easier for the user to read and understand. In ensuring that users got the best experience Google started ranking mobile friendly or responsive websites (where the website automatically changes its size and format to fit the screen) higher in the rankings.

The UK population were using their mobile phones for local searches, and local companies could at last gain an advantage over the large corporates or ‘national’ companies on the internet.

The introduction of ‘semantic search’, where Google brings back websites in the results not based on the keywords, but the content on a page, again changed the way SEO agencies looked at working on websites. Ranking for the ‘Big’ keywords, such as ‘Plumber Bristol’ became less important, as internet users became more savvy with their searches. ‘Long tail keywords’, and as many as possible, started to grow website visitors and more importantly, conversions.

What is The SEO Process Today?

It is probably correct to say that the processes or practices associated with search engine optimisation have now out grown the term ‘SEO’

In years gone by working the content and structure of a website was enough. Now, there is so much more to do to not only rank a website in search engines, but to get customer engagement. A better description of the service would be ‘digital marketing’.

Old practices, as mentioned earlier, meant ‘big’ keywords were key to ranking. A focus on a single keyword per page or even for a whole website would rank the business and back then it was all about ‘rankings’.

Old way of doing SEO

Today there are a number of factors to consider in regards to SEO. ‘Semantic search’ is the main driver and conversion the main goal, not rankings.

Semantic search is where Google returns information on the page, not the description the website creator input, back to the searcher. An example of this would be to take the ‘Plumber Bristol’ example. A few years ago you would have concentrated on ranking the business for “Plumber Bristol”, “Plumber in Bristol” and perhaps “Emergency Plumber Bristol” – although this still holds true for businesses that offer a solution for ‘distress purchases’ (where time and a solution outweigh the need for information and advice) better practice throughout a website is to add content that offers advice and guidance and includes ‘long tail keywords’ (3 or 4 word searches) such as “Emergency plumber with free callout in Bristol” or “Reviews for an Emergency Plumber near me”. Google wants the user to have the best experience and find the relevant information quickly, and semantic search achieves this. This is also sensible for a business owner. Would you rather your website was found by a searcher looking for “Plumber Bristol” where they could be after information, looking to get a job, looking for a plumbing service that you may not offer, or for a specific and targeted search such as “best emergency Plumber near BS7″? “Plumber Bristol” will get you a website visitor, being found for “best emergency Plumber near BS7″ will get you a customer.

In terms of keywords this is the largest change Google have made and it is here to stay. SEO or digital marketing is no longer about where you rank, but how many different search terms you can be found for and their conversion in to paying customers.

Website Content

A few years ago (and only 2 or 3 years ago) Google suggested to professional SEO Agencies that 300 words on a page was sufficient content. Last year they stated the MINIMUM should be at least 500 words.

Every day I am asked to review a website by a potential customer – and most of them have between 150 to 250 words on a page. This is common practice. There are two ways to look at this. Either Google has to change it’s expectations as most websites do not meet their grade or another way to look at this is as an easy way to jump the competition by simply adding content to your website. Do you think Google will lower it’s expectations or expect websites to improve to their standard? Google released the ‘mobile friendly’ update knowing that somewhere around 80% of websites would need to be upgraded – and they did it anyway as it benefitted over 50% of there users. Quality content effects 100% of their users.

I recommend to our customer about 800 words per page. This is enough content to be ‘semantic search’ friendly, provide relevant content and not be too word heavy.

Good practice is to have:

Page Title – say what the page is about (‘Big’ Keyword if you must)
Headline – asking a question
First paragraph explains briefly explains the content / solution
Image / or video
Longer description of the solution

Take our Emergency Plumber in Bristol, as an example:

1. Page Title: Emergency Plumber Bristol

1. Headline: Are you looking for the best emergency plumber near you in Bristol?

1. First Paragraph: Smith Plumbing offer a 24 hour emergency plumbing service in Bristol. We do not charge a call out fee and can be with you in 20 minutes. That is why our customer reviews and feedback say we are the best emergency plumbing service in your area. Call now on…

1. Image of the van or the Plumber looking professional

Longer description: What they can fix, common problems they resolve, some of the quotes from their customers etc.

This has a number of benefits.

Firstly, those people who just want a Plumber will read the first paragraph, see the image of the van (build authority and professionalism) and call the Plumber. Other people will want more information which they can find further down the page. Is this cheating at SEO? Absolutely NOT. You are providing relevant information to the user and Google will love you for it. How content is structured and written on a page is the “new” SEO.

The second benefit is that your website will start to be found for a combination of the words on the page – semantic search – in the example above the Plumber could be found by customers and potential customers looking for “Smith Plumbing”,”emergency Plumber near me”, “Emergency Plumber in Bristol”, “Best24 hour emergency plumbing service in Bristol”, “emergency plumber Bristol reviews” and dozens more search terms. If you were a Plumber would you rather be found for one big keyword or multiple relevant customer converting keywords? I thought so, and so does Google.

Old practices were to create website content for the search engines. Now you must create content to provide value for customers. This is an easier process than you might think.

What were the last 5 customer enquiries to your business? What was the problem they were trying to resolve? Write about the problem and your solution.

Link Building

The historic way of ‘link building’ was to get as many links from as many places as possible. This year we has a very large company contact us about their SEO and they were horrified when we suggested that they needed to remove their 1.4 MILLION links back to their website as they had spent a fortune over the years buying the links. Irrelevant links, and the more you have the more detrimental it is, highlights to Google the irrelevance of your website – regardless of how relevant it might be.

Today, a few, relevant links is far better than a Million links back to your website. Today, links have to be built through engaging relationships. Taking our Plumber once more, a link back from the ‘Gas Safe register’, a local plumbing centre or bathroom showroom, and a few local websites that like his information would be enough.

Social Media

Even though we still get a some companies like this now, a few years ago when we suggested businesses should be on Facebook I was normally told “Facebook – that is for teenagers isn’t it? That is not our market”. If done well, Facebook can drive more traffic and paying customers to your door than your website. Facebook’s largest user group is 25 to 34 year olds, second largest is the 35 to 44 years old age group. The 45 to 54 year olds are using Facebook more than teenagers, and as nearly as much as 18 to 24 year old.

Facebook Users UK age – courtesy of statista

Facebook allows a business to build a brand, engage customers, get customer reviews and instant customer feedback. Unlike reviews on your website which potential customer may see if they visit your website, a review on Facebook is seen immediately by all of the users friends and if their friend ‘likes’ the comment – all of their friends, friends. More and more of our customers are getting leads from Facebook. People are asking their friends for suggestions on businesses to use and getting dozens of suggestions back – if you are on Facebook you are more likely to get a direct link to your contact information.

What is next for ‘Social Media’? Live streaming! Twitter has purchased a company called ‘Periscope’ which allows you to live stream video from your phone. “So what?” I hear our ’emergency plumber’ asking. If I were a Plumber I would be live streaming my work as I fix a problem, with the video going out live to all of my followers and their friends – my own television channel that is free-to-air across the whole world. Next time your business conducts a ‘brain storming session’ – periscope it – your customer will tell you what the solutions are.

Video Marketing

There are no ‘old’ SEO practices for video as it just didn’t exist and when YouTube started out it was for showing funny videos of cats and the like.

Today that has all changed. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and is owned by Google. YouTube has over 1 BILLION users worldwide and every minute, 300 hours of videos are uploaded. It would take you about 2 years to watch all of the videos that will be uploaded in the next hour. It would take you the rest of your life to watch all the videos uploaded today. Google’s own statistics say that by 2018 73% of searches put into a search engine will result in the person watching a video. Think of it another way, in a couple of years when 10 people search the internet for your product or service – 7 of them will watch a video, 2 will visit a website. That is why I create videos for our customers as part of our ‘digital marketing service’.

SEO Company Bristol offers a full digital and internet marketing service, including search engine optimisation or SEO.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/9126300

5 Ways On How To Take Control Of Your Content Marketing

Creation of content can be considered from different points of view. Some of the web content developers create content for audience’s sake while others create content for the sake of search engines. The need for content cannot be emphasized enough in the online sector. Content attracts a large number of visitors to your website, builds trust towards your audience, answers questions, and so forth.

When it comes to content marketing, quality should be prioritized rather than quantity. Content is mainly produced for the user’s benefit. When producing your content, consider keeping it original, useful, and fresh. Your content should also be relevant to attract more shares and links. Before creating content, understand your users and what they need to keep them intact. Maintain a high level of originality of your content by letting it have a flow.

The following 5 tips, provided by Ryan Johnson, the Senior Sales Manager of Semalt Digital Services, will help you analyze and take control of your content marketing.

1. Top Content

Being a top web content developer comes with a bit of experience and taking control of content marketing as a general. To keep the users interested, you have to create content on pages that has high exit rates or the bounce rates. The bounce rates help to measure the number of users or visitors that visited a certain page and left without checking any other page. The Exit rates help to measure the number of users who visited the given page, then left your website but had a chance of browsing other pages before the given page.

Optimization of the content contained in pages that have low average times per page and high in visits always keeps the users interested. Always look for the trend of content in the top pages to get ideas on what to develop content, mostly the topic to focus on a given time.

Before creating content, consider checking on the top pages to have an idea of what’s trending at a given time frame.

2. Landing Pages

The visitors play a key role in conversion after visiting the landing pages. Landing pages are where your users start their adventure of your site. However, the top content should not be ignored. Report about the landing pages is contained under the Landing Pages, an icon that is under the Behaviour.

The landing page helps web content developers learn the principles contained in the top performing pages and to apply the practices learned in the bottom performing pages. Visit the pages with low conversion rates or high bounce rates and fix the issues that you may find in those pages. Also, evaluate the sidebars with unrelated content and the content contained in pages with high bounce rates.

To be safe, break the traffic down by the source before you start evaluating the top and the bottom pages. Increase the conversion rates on pages already creating traffic, and you will have attained quick wins in your SEO campaign.

3. Exit Pages

Creation of content around diverse topics may not be that valuable for your site. For instance, a visitor may visit your site, like content from a specific keyword, go through the next product, click it, and leave the site. That will outrank your site, even if it had been top-ranked for a certain keyword.

Exit Pages report helps a developer to find the pages driving away traffic. Creating a closely related content helps one to track down attractive content to the users and the one that drives them away. If by any chance your top exit pages and the top landing pages are the same, you are in a good position to increase conversions on your site.

4. The Visitors Flow

The visitors flow is very categorical and contains some columns. The first column of the visitor’s flow indicates where a user entered the site. The second column shows the landing page. Different blocks of the visitor’s flow are connected by blue lines, where the thickness of the blue line depicts the number of visitors following that path. The visitor’s flow also contains a red line that indicates a point where the user dropped off.

To increase conversions, identify the point where the visitors are dropping off and produce content that can replicate with the visitor’s flow. Also, consider linking your prominent pages with other pages to build up the user experience and a better flow. Always spend some time to monitor how your users interact with the pages on your site and the content to have an effective SEO campaign.

5. The Penguin Tool

The Penguin Tool is widely used in the comparison of Google algorithm updates and Google Analytics data. The overlay of Penguin tool with other updates helps to indicate the cause of potential fluctuation of traffic in your site. The Panda updates targets duplicate and low-quality content. In addition, the Panda update will you measure the level of progress of your site.

Web content developers should create content for the users and visitors benefit, rather than for Google’s sake. Generate content that will add value to your target audience, clients, and readers. The above-discussed points will help you have an effective SEO campaign and take control of your content marketing.

Semalt – Automated Promotion Platform for Your Business

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/9967055

The Advantages of a SSL Certificates for a Small Business Website?

With increasing Internet penetration and the explosion of social media, small businesses are no longer at a disadvantage. They are able to sell their products and services to customers from all over the globe, target audiences in any segment and region and position themselves for growth. While on-ground infrastructure needs to match to achieve success, the Internet has ensured that small businesses have a new avenue of reliable and affordable marketing. They are able to explain their offerings and are assured of an upward trajectory, provided their strategies are right.

However, the lynchpin for the entire operations is a website and all factors revolve around the same. When visitors come to the website of a small business, they should be able to get an intuitive feel and easily obtain what they are looking for. Further, visitors are looking more from a perspective of data security whenever they engage with any one on the Internet. Hence, the security of a website is a very important factor and visitors must be assured of the same, to retain trust and build a bond.

This is where the role of SSL certificates comes in. The term SSL is expanded to Secured Socket Layer and this certificate is a small data file that digitally binds a cryptographic key to the details of the organization. Organizations need an SSL certificate, in order to initiate a secure session with browsers. After installation, the application protocol changes from HTTP to HTTPS and depending on the browser a padlock or a green bar is displayed.

The key advantages for a small business are

1) SSL is important to drive home business credibility

By proactively installing an SSL certificate, businesses indicate that they care about data security. Installation of an SSL certificate is not an off-the shelf operation. A governing authority performs several checks to authenticate a business before the certificate is issued.

2) Data Integrity

With SSL certification, there is encryption of data, files are prevented from being corrupted when they are being transferred and there is protection from malicious attacks. It is thus assured that information only reaches the intended recipients and that it is not intercepted by any third party.

3) Google supports SSL

SSL certification is one of the parameters considered for Google SEO. About close to 40% of organic listings on the first page of Google are HTTPS. HTTPS is also a signal in Google’s algorithm since 2014.

All of the above will mean increased customer confidence and conversions, which is the sole aim of a business having a website. It is thus a no-brainer that SSL certificates are vital for any small business website.

Nikitha (www.niktha.in) is a leading web development, online marketing and website auditing company in Chennai offering cutting edge services. With deep experience, a passionate team and technology strength, they deliver powerfully transformative solutions and add tangible value to any business.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/10065800

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is an ideal, economical solution for companies who want to run multiple websites. The advantages and disadvantages of sharing a server depend on a variety of factors, including the hosting company, number of websites involved, and the amount of traffic the sites receive.

A systems administrator manages the server and the websites to ensure that they are running securely. The owner of each site won’t have individual access to all of the root files. Since small sized businesses and webmasters of personal sites don’t use all of the features and resources available to them, shared hosting is a great choice.

How is the space measured?

In shared hosting, space is offered in the form of gigabytes. The more bytes a company has, the more files it can host. Websites with a lot of traffic will require more bandwidth, which means they’ll receive the majority of the shared space. A simple blog will require less bandwidth than a music or video streaming website, therefore the former will be given less space to share.

What are the benefits of shared hosting?

Cost-efficiency and simplicity are the two main benefits. Sharing server space can be fairly cheap. Since the providers don’t have to spend a lot of money on resources, they are able to offer hosting at discounted price. The free add-ons, such as templates and website builders, also save the webmaster money.

The host manages the resources and maintains the server, which makes things a lot easier on the site owners. For the technically challenged, this is the best solution, since no knowledge of programming, designing, or hosting is required.

What should be considered when choosing a shared web hosting company?

An ideal shared hosting company is one that provides its members with a good plan that is suitable for all levels of experience. Everyone from beginner webmasters to experienced professionals should be able to utilize the tools and access the control panel without any problems. A good shared hosting will provide all users with free site builders and programming language support.

It’s also important to choose a company that offers excellent customer service. Quality service is a sign that the company is genuinely interested in the success of its users. The server must be maintained securely and appropriately for optimal performance. Webmasters should be able to receive technical support whenever they need it.

The other websites involved in the host sharing is something else to consider. If other sites receive the most traffic and require a lot of bandwidth, those few that don’t will experience some downtime. There should be plenty of resources available for ALL users, and not just a select few. Every website should receive a fair amount of bandwidth.

Types of Web Hosting Services

Before selecting a web host it is paramount that you understand the various types of hosting options you have. Every website has different needs and meeting your site’s needs will help produce a satisfying end result. Hosting services available to you will likely fall into one of the following categories:

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting is definitely the cheapest option available, however as we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch and this holds true with so called “free” hosting services as well. Free web hosts will often be advertisement supported and have very limited features, storage space, and bandwidth. Generally this is not a good option for any website which supports a business or needs to offer users a stable and efficient environment. Free hosting services are best for small web sites which are not intended to do much more than share a bit of info with a small group of friends.

Shared Web Hosting

With shared web hosting a single computer referred to as a box or a server will generally hold a large number of websites. The number will depend on the company, the cost, and the hardware that makes up the machine. Shared hosting is often a reliable hosting option for most websites including both small business and personal use. The overall quality, speed, and cost will fluctuate significantly from host to host so it is important to do your homework before selecting a shared hosting center. Often websites which abuse or use more resources including CPU time or bandwidth will be shut down. If your website requires heavy resource allotment you will likely need to look into another hosting option.

Reseller Web Hosting

This is a less common form of hosting but it allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Common examples of this would be web design firms who host their clients’ websites. In truth, the only difference between reseller web hosting and shared hosting is generally the size of the hosting company. The larger hosting companies such as Bluehost and HostMonster are just much larger versions of reseller web hosting.

Virtual Dedicated Server

Virtual dedicated servers are very similar to shared hosting except in how the allotment of resources is handled. Whereas with shared hosting all clients share the same CPU and bandwidth resources with virtual dedicated servers each client is guaranteed a set amount of CPU power and bandwidth. Virtual dedicated servers also offer their clients what is often referred to as “root” access to their virtual machine. This offers them more hands on control with how the machine runs including the ability to tinker with the operating system.

Dedicated Hosting Service

With dedicated hosting services the user has full control over the server and is the only client who uses the server. There are normally two types of dedicated hosting options which are managed and unmanaged. With managed hosting the client will have various support-personal or plans in place to assist them with managing the server and ensuring that things such as its security policies are up to date. Unmanaged will leave all the responsibility in the hands of the client which can be less expensive in some cases. In both cases having a dedicated server offers you much more control over what options are available on your server from mail programs to FTP services and so on. Naturally dedicated servers are much more expensive and therefore many webmasters opt for the cheaper shared or virtual private server options. With both types of dedicated hosting the servers are owned by the hosting company.

Colocation Web Hosting Service

Colocation is similar to dedicating hosting services, but in this case the user fully owns the server and the hosting center simply provides a physical space, power, and a connection to the internet for the client. In many cases there is little or no further support for the client beyond ensuring that there is power and the negotiated bandwidth available to the server. With this option in most cases the owner of the server will have an administrator who must visit to the facility or have another form of remote access to the machine.

Clustered Hosting

In some cases it is not enough to have one server handling the needs of a website. For these cases clustered hosting becomes a viable solution. With clustered hosting multiple servers host the same information allowing a much larger base of users to access the information at one time.

Grid Hosting

Grid hosting is a form of distributed hosting where a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Home Server

In some cases webmasters elect to manage their own web servers at home or at their place of business. This can be done on both a consumer-grade broadband connection or in some cases on something more capable. Home servers are much like colocation except for the loss of the expensive facilities which generally have backup power sources, industrial grade cooling systems, and various other benefits. Some ISPs do not allow their users to host their own websites so it is best to investigate this before attempting to setup your own web server.

Which Hosting Option Should I Choose?

If you’re reading this article you probably should be choosing shared hosting, or either virtual or fully dedicated hosting. For most small to medium sized websites these are perfectly adequate and viable options. If your web hosting needs are larger than this you will likely have an IT specialist who is part of your team who would be better equipped to assess your web hosting needs.

Hopefully by now you have a better idea about what type of hosting you need. Now it’s time for the real fun, choosing the best webhost!

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/1704048