More progress made on the great SEO project:
web site design swansea from position 173 to 132
website design swansea from position 154 to 101
web design swansea from position 157 to 99
swansea web design from position 172 to 154
It's great to see this working as I was a little sceptical especially as I decided to publish my progress to the world! However now the hard work will begin as once we get to the top 10 pages progress will slow down as the competition is higher.
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Thursday, 27 November 2008
Search Engine Success for Huw Davies
Having launched the new website on November 12th, I was delighted to see that already Huw Davies appears on page one of Google for 'Learn to Drive Swansea' and in POSITION 1 for 'Learn to drive Llanelli'.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Do we need SEO?
Since starting my SEO project I have spent a lot of time searching the web to find out about search engine optimisation, what other people are doing and techniques that work. There is a lot of discussion on the web at the moment about why you don't need SEO. A lot stemming from this post - 7 Reasons Why You Don't Need SEO .
While I disagree with the statement, I agree with everything that is said in the post and I was quite relieved when I realised that the majority of issues highlighted are generally not an issue with websites we design. We build websites with clean and semantic coding that comply to web standards, and are generally search engine friendly.
However, there's only so much we can do and while we can help and advise you throughout, things like writing content is down to you. Especially on a content managed website.
Content & Link Building
To get peole to link to your website for authentic 'link building', you need to start giving people good content. This is why people and companies blog, why How To guides are popping up everywhere and why company sites are containing more news and useful information rather than just promoting their products. Link building can also get a bit out of hand. It only works if the links to and from your site are relevant, they need to make sense and be useful to your users.
How do you feel when you read content that doesn't really make sense because it's just been crammed full of keywords? If your content is well written, and gives people the information they need the keywords will be there, userswill visit AND STAY on your site and other websites will link to you. It's all very logical really.
And the answer is...
I think we need SEO, but you shouldn't necessarily be paying through the nose for it. If you have had a website for a few years the chances are you may have just missed out on the SEO wave and your site may not be best optimised. Although if your site is more than a few years old it may well be time for a change anyway....
While I disagree with the statement, I agree with everything that is said in the post and I was quite relieved when I realised that the majority of issues highlighted are generally not an issue with websites we design. We build websites with clean and semantic coding that comply to web standards, and are generally search engine friendly.
However, there's only so much we can do and while we can help and advise you throughout, things like writing content is down to you. Especially on a content managed website.
Content & Link Building
To get peole to link to your website for authentic 'link building', you need to start giving people good content. This is why people and companies blog, why How To guides are popping up everywhere and why company sites are containing more news and useful information rather than just promoting their products. Link building can also get a bit out of hand. It only works if the links to and from your site are relevant, they need to make sense and be useful to your users.
How do you feel when you read content that doesn't really make sense because it's just been crammed full of keywords? If your content is well written, and gives people the information they need the keywords will be there, userswill visit AND STAY on your site and other websites will link to you. It's all very logical really.
And the answer is...
I think we need SEO, but you shouldn't necessarily be paying through the nose for it. If you have had a website for a few years the chances are you may have just missed out on the SEO wave and your site may not be best optimised. Although if your site is more than a few years old it may well be time for a change anyway....
Friday, 21 November 2008
How to... use Twitter
You may have noticed a block on the right hand side of the main website titled 'Twitter Updates'. For those of you that don't know, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool. It gives you 140 characters to tell people what you are doing, what you're looking at, how you're feeling, what you're thinking about. It's a quick and easy way to update your site and keep people informed without having to write whole blog posts.
Follow and be Followed
Once you have set up your account with Twitter you can find and follow people - your friends and family, companies (for example Firebox are on Twitter) or people you're interested in. You can even send direct messages.
What are the Benefits?
These are the benefits according to me...feel free to Tweet or blog others.
Follow and be Followed
Once you have set up your account with Twitter you can find and follow people - your friends and family, companies (for example Firebox are on Twitter) or people you're interested in. You can even send direct messages.
What are the Benefits?
These are the benefits according to me...feel free to Tweet or blog others.
- It's easy to do
- It eases you into blogging and the mentality behind it
- You're likely to find some interesting people, websites and blogs
- It's fun (really, I enjoy tweeting!)
- It's a great way to promote new services, products and events
- You can add a feed to your site so it's always getting updated
Step 1 - Sign Up
First of all you need to set up a Twitter Account so go to http://twitter.com/ and click 'Join the Conversation'. Simply fill in your details and off to go!
Step 2 - Your first Tweet
Now the pressure is on - what will be your first tweet? Tell people why you have started, tell them what you are thinking RIGHT NOW, tell them what you had for dinner. The more interesting the better. Maybe you want a theme for your tweets? I have found a guy that tweets everything he has to eat, for Picseli it's all about the company and what we are up to.
Step 3 - Find some Friends
It can take time to get a huge following on Twitter, but so that people can find you - you need to find people. So look up your friends or send them an email, go to http://search.twitter.com/ and search for people tweeting similar things to you then follow them.
Step 4 - Keep it up
So that people who find you want to follow, you need to make sure you keep tweeting! If you have decided on a theme - stick to it. Why not provide links to useful blog posts you've found? If you have decided to set up a feed on your website there is nothing worse than it showing your last tweet was months ago!
As a first step why not follow Picseli?
ADDED 27/11/2008:
A great list of ways to use Twitter can be found here http://www.doshdosh.com/ways-you-can-use-twitter/
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Quick SEO Update
I am not the most patient of people when it comes to seeing results and thought I would check today to see whether the changes I have made to the website have made a difference. In many cases the results have improved by up to 2 pages!
web site design swansea from position 194 to 173
website design swansea from position 161 to 154
web design swansea from position 176 to 157
swansea web design from position 179 to 172
I know that the results do fluctuate regularly based on everyone else's changes and Google's feelings, but I was pleased to see that we are progressing.
web site design swansea from position 194 to 173
website design swansea from position 161 to 154
web design swansea from position 176 to 157
swansea web design from position 179 to 172
I know that the results do fluctuate regularly based on everyone else's changes and Google's feelings, but I was pleased to see that we are progressing.
Friday, 14 November 2008
How to...add a 'Find us on Facebook' button
---------------
UPDATE 11th March 2011: With the new Facebook pages this tutorial is no longer completely accurate. For other ways to link to your Facebook page check out our new post: How to link to your Facebook Page. Thanks for all your feedback!
---------------
If you have followed last week's 'How To create a facebook page for your company' post you'll be wondering how you let people know about it. Apart from sharing it with all of your Facebook friends, you need to let customers, potential clients and non-facebook friends know about it.
The lovely people at Facebook have produced a button that you can add to your website telling people about your page. So how do you add it?
Step 1 - Find your page
Log in to Facebook and get to the page you want to promote. On the menu on the right hand side click 'Edit Page'.
Step 2 - How to promote your page the Facebook way
On the next page in the right hand menu under 'Communication' click 'Promotion Guidelines' and this page will tell you all you need to know about promoting your page and what you can and can't do.
Step 3 - Download the Badge
About 2/3 of the way down the page you will find the badge - simply right click and save to your computer.
Step 4 - Get the link to your page
Now, either send this to your web developer with the full link to your Facebook page (you are not allowed to link to the Facebook log in page) or add the button to your website where you'd like it to be with the link.
To get the link or URL to your facebook page simply get back to your page and copy whatever is displayed in the address bar of your web browser. For example, the link to the Picseli page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swansea-United-Kingdom/Picseli/33433262689
You'll have plenty of fans before you know it. Just remember to read and follow the Facebook guidelines.
UPDATE 11th March 2011: With the new Facebook pages this tutorial is no longer completely accurate. For other ways to link to your Facebook page check out our new post: How to link to your Facebook Page. Thanks for all your feedback!
---------------
If you have followed last week's 'How To create a facebook page for your company' post you'll be wondering how you let people know about it. Apart from sharing it with all of your Facebook friends, you need to let customers, potential clients and non-facebook friends know about it.
The lovely people at Facebook have produced a button that you can add to your website telling people about your page. So how do you add it?
Step 1 - Find your page
Log in to Facebook and get to the page you want to promote. On the menu on the right hand side click 'Edit Page'.
Step 2 - How to promote your page the Facebook way
On the next page in the right hand menu under 'Communication' click 'Promotion Guidelines' and this page will tell you all you need to know about promoting your page and what you can and can't do.
Step 3 - Download the Badge
About 2/3 of the way down the page you will find the badge - simply right click and save to your computer.
Step 4 - Get the link to your page
Now, either send this to your web developer with the full link to your Facebook page (you are not allowed to link to the Facebook log in page) or add the button to your website where you'd like it to be with the link.
To get the link or URL to your facebook page simply get back to your page and copy whatever is displayed in the address bar of your web browser. For example, the link to the Picseli page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swansea-United-Kingdom/Picseli/33433262689
You'll have plenty of fans before you know it. Just remember to read and follow the Facebook guidelines.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Keywords
Having done some research into what Google users search for I will focus my SEO efforts on 'web site design swansea' - wish me luck!
The whole Picseli site has now been indexed in Google, so this is a good time to start a concentrated effort to get the site well ranked.
Current Position
According to http://www.mynameissteve.com/google-page-rank picseli.co.uk currently ranks at position 175 (page 18) in Google for 'web site design swansea'. However when I did the search myself found us at position 202 (page 21).
For 'website design swansea' we can be found on page 17 (position 161) and for 'web design swansea' we're on page 18 (position 179). Not bad as a starting point, but still plenty of opportunity to improve.
The whole Picseli site has now been indexed in Google, so this is a good time to start a concentrated effort to get the site well ranked.
Current Position
According to http://www.mynameissteve.com/google-page-rank picseli.co.uk currently ranks at position 175 (page 18) in Google for 'web site design swansea'. However when I did the search myself found us at position 202 (page 21).
For 'website design swansea' we can be found on page 17 (position 161) and for 'web design swansea' we're on page 18 (position 179). Not bad as a starting point, but still plenty of opportunity to improve.
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