How to Optimise Your Website for Local Search Results

Search engine optimisation can get your website seen by people from all corners of the world, giving you greater power than ever to market your firm on a global basis. But what if you want to specifically reach the people on your own doorstep? For some businesses, such as restaurants and local service providers, it's important to get seen by people in your immediate area, and there are ways of optimising your site to ensure that you get noticed locally.

Use local keywords
It can in fact be easier to rank highly using local keywords than with more generic terms. For example, there is going to be a lot less competition for 'bicycle repair in Liverpool' than simply 'bicycle repair'. Using local keywords also makes it more likely that customers in your immediate geographic area will find you. As well as using your local keyphrases within the natural flow of your content, be sure to also use them in your titles, meta descriptions and headers.
Utilise Google Places
Google Places is one of the most powerful tools for getting discovered by local users on Google, and it's completely free. Registering your details on Places makes it more likely that your site will show up for local searches, and enables the display of additional information, such as contact details and a map.

Submit your site to local directories
Submitting your site to local business directories can provide an additional source of incoming traffic, as well as giving the search engines an additional ranking signal connected to your geographic location.

Use a local domain name
If you're a UK based company, make sure that the search engines and your visitors know it by using a.co.uk domain name.

Target customers in different locations with landing pages
If your business services customers in more than one location then you should consider creating an optimised landing page for each area that will act as an entry point for each different area. For example, you could have one page targeting 'couriers in Southampton' and another for 'couriers in Portsmouth'.
Implementing some of the simple steps in this article can have a pretty fast and noticeable impact on your traffic and presence on the web. If you would rather leave it to the professionals, consult an experienced SEO Agency with a good track record in local search and speak to them about a campaign for your business. It could cost less than you think and deliver a real return on investment!

25 Tips to Build an SEO-Friendly Website From the Beginning

Contrary to popular belief, search engine optimization begins at the same time, or even prior to the design and development of a website. On the one hand the user experience is developed, on the other the SEO strategy. Most companies wait for the entire website to complete before approaching a company for optimization. But that is like customizing an entire car and then realizing at the end of it that you wanted beige interiors instead of the leather ones. This only results in companies paying many times more and, not to mentioned, a ruined user experience. Here are some strategies that you should encapsulate within your entire design and development process for a website that is fully prepared for SEO from the word :

1) On each page, target one to three relevant keywords and phrases and optimize them.
2) Make sure the content is up to the mark, original, informative and interesting. Remove any duplicate content.
3) Make all the URLs readable by replacing blank spaces and underscores with hyphens.
4) Always use the relevant keywords in the Alt tag of images and resize all images according to the need.
5) Always use semantic markup only.
6) Make sure the linking on your website is immaculate and there are no broken links or images.
7) It is advisable to have a sitemap for visitors and sitemap.xml for Google.
8) Always have a robots.txt file in your directory.
9) Set up web analytics, Google and Bing Webmaster Tool for your website.
10) Once Google Webmaster Tool is set up, run all the major pages through its “crawl as Google” tool to make sure that the spiders crawl deep each time.
11) Reduce scripts, CSS and HTML to as low as possible and use CSS image sprites wherever needed.
12) Acquire services from a trustworthy and reputed server and set up automated backup.
13) Remember: there are no quick fixes. The long route is the strong route.
14) Do not use Flash.
15) Minimize the number of directories in URLs. Use subdirectories only when needed.
16) Add relevant information about the fold. Google and visitor, both are fond of this.
17) Use 301 redirects to your benefit.
18) Drupal users should install the Global Redirect module.
19) Add a head term in the domain name.
20) Use SSL certification only when needed, like secure pages, or else both the versions will be indexed and duplication occurs.
21) Auto-generated URLs from CMSs should be treated carefully, and redirected to the SEO-friendly URL using the 301 redirect.
22) To www or not to www, take a stand!
23) JavaScript should be avoided as a means of navigation if it cannot be easily crawled through.
24) The difference between absolute URLs and relative URLs should be clear in content authors minds.
25) Don't use auto-initiated carousels, animations or multimedia.
Keep these tips in mind and make sure that your website is Google's and other search engines favorite.

Ways To Generate Website Traffic

Are you confused on how to actually improve your website traffic or even how to start receiving traffic in the first place? With so much information available, it is easy to get lost in all the lingo. Here are 10 easy tips to get you started.

1. Optimize Your Site – Potential customers primarily use Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL to search for services and products. You need to be sure that your website contains enough relevant text and not just pictures so that search engines are picking up keywords.

2. Email Signature – One of the quickest and easiest ways to increase your website traffic is by adding a personalized signature with your website URL to your emails. If you have employees, ask them to do the same.

3. Viral Marketing – Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing strategies. Put an incentive program into effect and give your customers a reason to spread the word. They can easily be added to an affiliate program by supplying them with a link to your website that they can put in their blog and email.

4. Paid Search Placements – The right side and top links on the Google website are paid placements. You can purchase these area on a “pay-per-click” basis. This is a phenomenal way to generate website traffic and it is fairly inexpensive when compared to the return on your investment.

5. Link Or Banner Trade – It is always a good idea to trade a link or banner with other relevant websites. You advertise for them and they advertise for you. Also, having links posted on other sites that are relevant improves your Search Engine Ranking.

6. Offline Advertising – If you have business cards, letterhead, packaging and even certain products, that don't have your website URL somewhere visible, you are missing out on an easy way to increase your website traffic. Business cards are one of the most powerful marketing tools you have access to, be sure that you are reaping your maximum rewards from them.

7. Customer Email – Repeat customers are one of the most important parts of your business. Be sure that you have email addresses to your current customers so that you can keep them informed of new products and promotions.

8. Virtual Sales Force – Sign up for an affiliate program to increase your website traffic. An affiliate is paid a small commission to send people to your website. For example, many sites and blogs will have a “Buy at Amazon” type of link or banner, those are put there by affiliate.

9. Powerful PR – Have a media release about a new product or contest that you are offering. Be creative! A unique story will catch the eye of a busy journalist much faster than a generic one will.

10. Write Articles – There are many industry websites where you can publish articles relevant to your product or service and supply a link to your URL. Additionally, Ezinearticles, Hubpages and Squidoo are all wonderful outlets to use to increase your website traffic. 

Enhance Traffic To Your Website

When people think SEO Company, they will often times think money - it's going to cost some money for effective professional SEO services. Even though it is a good idea to hire an SEO Perth or SEO Adelaide site optimization company, especially if you don't have time to dedicate to site optimization - there are two important things you have to consider when building your site. And, SEO is only a small part of the big picture.

An effective SEO company may have some technical tricks up their sleeve like getting back links or optimizing your on-site coding, etc. Sure, a great SEO company can use these tricks to get people to your site, but what's going to keep them their? Or what is going to get your site visitors to act. That is, visit your business location, pick up the phone and call your business, purchase something from your company website, etc. Well, here are two things you need to bring people to your site, keep them there, and act.

QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY
First and foremost, your site needs quality content. A professional SEO Perth or SEO Adelaide optimization company may be able to provide social media management and killer PR8 backlinks for your site. But, what if people go to your site and see crap content, more than likely, they're not coming back and they are going to leave your site with a negative outlook on your company. So, when write great quality content that is useful, informative and/or entertaining, you'll have return visitors people who will spend time browsing your site (which is great in the eyes of the Google spiders), and a memorable business image. So, spend time writing content and before you do, take some time to research what people like to read about. If you are not a writer, an SEO company can sometimes provide you with great written quality work. Just ask.

WHILE BUILDING YOUR SITE, THINK USER-FRIENDLY
When building your site, you, personally, might love how it looks and operates. You may enjoy the layout of your website and placing widgets and graphics in certain spots, but remember, you are making the website for your visitors. So, keep your site visitors in mind and make it user-friendly. If you need some ideas on how to do that, talk to an SEO Perth or SEO Adelaide site optimization company about what they recommend regarding how to create a site for your particular site user demographic.

Another idea is to do some research online and study successful websites - their layouts, image placement, etc. Just do a Google search using the words, "best websites." When you study these sites, ask yourself, what do these sites all have in common? Often times, this is what you'll notice they all have:

- Search Bar
- RSS Feed
- Quick Download Time

- Google analytics (you won't be able to notice just from looking at the site, but guaranteed, all the successful sites have a program like Google analytics to check on the stats of the website.)

Now, what you want to do is replicate certain parts of these successful sites. Another thing you can do is talk to an SEO Perth or SEO Adelaide optimization company about performing an A/B split test on your site to find out exactly what to change on your site to improve site visitor performance.

Hiring an SEO Perth or SEO Adelaide company is a great idea, especially if you need site traffic to help increase your business profitability. But, creating quality content and focusing on user-friendliness is extremely important - maybe even more important than the back links and other SEO tricks an SEO company can provide.

Changing Face of S.E.OPTIMIZATION

Search engine optimisation has been around for a while now as both a term and a process, but it's only now that it's being officially recognised as part of the English language by the Oxford English Dictionary.
According to Wired, 'search engine optimisation' has been added to the dictionary during the 2013 round of additions, alongside the word 'tweet'. This addition is a testament to the growing importance of SEO, and a reminder that it's here to stay, no matter what the naysayers say.

The exact definition that has entered the hallowed pages is as yet unknown, but it's worth taking a closer look at what search engine optimisation means today in comparison to ten, or even five years ago.

The changing face of search engine optimization

SEO today is evolving into an ever more natural and fluid process, driven by the constant changes to the search parameters carried out by Google and others. What the search engines want to see is websites and content that are genuinely useful to their users, and they're getting better and better at finding it.
Although the mechanical elements of SEO, such as keywords and backlinks, remain important, Google in particular is shifting the focus towards the actual user experience.
In Google's Webmaster Help documents on ranking , the search giant recently introduced the line: "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share". Previously the line had emphasised focusing on increasing links.
In that context then, search engine optimisation is actually about creating a website which is of a high quality and highly usable. There are of course technical elements to this, but many of these, such as improving site navigation, will be carried out as a direct result of aiming for better user experience.
Creating a quality website with exceptional original content should of course be the primary aim of all webmasters and marketers anyway, as it is this which will draw people in and keep them there.
If you're thinking about a full website refresh or just a long overdue content review to bolster your SEO campaign, speak to your web design and SEO agency to find out how you can make your website look the bee's knees while still delivering an engaging and memorable user experience that will leave visitors coming back for more.