Autus Web Design & Marketing

Technology House, University of Salford, Manchester M6 6AP. Tel: 0161 278 2534

Search Engine Optimisation

Inbound Links

In layman’s terms, Google views a link from another website into yours as a ‘vote’ for your website. If the link is from a website with significant common content, it values the link more strongly. Google is placing increasing emphasis on the importance of good quality links into a website, on the basis that this ‘off page’ activity is more difficult for web masters to manipulate and is more likely to reflect the true popularity of a website.

 

essential seo - section headingsBeware of Links Farms….!
On this subject, beware of SEO operators offering you 200 links if you join their link club.

Google is clamping down heavily on these attempts to distort its rankings. It is in Google’s interest to ensure that the websites enjoying high ranking are there due to the merit of their content. We have examples of clients who have joined link farms and then seen their websites plummet down the ranking when Google has renewed its ranking formula and identified and penalised websites with a stack of farmed links.

 

Conclusion

Take the time to build an ever growing list of links into your website. Request links from your suppliers, business associates and other operators within your industry sector. The effort will be worth it as ‘genuine’ inbound links are well respected by the search engines.

 

Internal Links

Google appreciates links established within the website, to help it navigate its way around. So take every opportunity to introduce links between the different pages on your website, and add a site map in the process.

 

Keyword Loaded Anchor Text

Google ascribes keyword value to the anchor text used for your hyperlinks. So, where possible, use product names or other keywords rather than anchor text such as Read more……  or Details…..

 

Ensure text is HTML

Google is ‘uncomfortable’ with certain forms of Flash animation. We still see many websites where the company name, business activity and even what should be the H1 tag, are embedded in Flash. Unless dealt with specifically in the website coding, the search engine will see only an image, failing to recognise the critical keywords in a prominent position on the website.

 

essential seo - inbound linksGrow Your Website Content

As a general principle, you should aim to continuously grow the content of your website. This makes sense for several reasons. Refreshed and growing content is attractive on several counts:-

  • Human visitors welcome refreshed content. If they see your website does not change from one month (or year!) to the next why should they return, or recommend or link to your website?
  • On the same basis, why should Google show your site in response to searches if the content is old and probably out of date? Google applies the simple logic that a refreshed website is more likely to satisfy the Google user than a neglected website.
  • If you are growing your website content, you have the opportunity to reinforce to Google your keyword messages. If the content is grown inline with a SEO strategy, then we are increasing the intensity of the Page Tags, H1 Tags, section headings and keywords used in the body text. We can increase the number of internal page links and we make the website more attractive to inbound links from other websites.

 

Conclusion

Google will cache (re-visit) your website, probably on a monthly basis, more frequently if it sees that you refresh regularly. It will compare the content with the last cache – and make a decision on where to place your website.

 

So, whichever reason stimulates you to act – refresh and grown your website’s content.

 

essential seo - domain nameFree SEO Analysis of Your Website

This is a broad summary of SEO, intended to give you as a website owner an appreciation of what is required to achieve a high ranking for the search phrases most appropriate to your business.

 

If you would like a free analysis of your website’s SEO status please e-mail your request, detailing your website address, to websiteanalysis@autus.co.uk

 

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