When you’re writing your SEO copy, chances are there’ll come a time when you’ll wonder whether you should target the plural of your keyword or the singular.
e.g. Do I target “tennis shoe” or “tennis shoes”?
To answer this question, the first thing you need to do is find out what your target visitors are actually searching for. If the vast majority are searching for “tennis shoes”, then you’d target that, and forget about “tennis shoe”.
However, in the real world, things are rarely so black and white. More often than not, the number of searches for each will be similar, and you’ll still be left wondering which would be the more effective keyword.
Your next step is to think about why visitors search for one and not the other. It may be that people search for “tennis shoe” when they’re researching whether to buy a tennis shoe or a running shoe. On the other hand, people may search for “tennis shoes” when they want to actually buy a pair online. In this case, if you were selling tennis shoes, you’d most likely choose “tennis shoes” as your keyword phrase.
Still no closer to a decision? Maybe you can target both... If the only difference between the singular and the plural is the addition of an “s” or “es” on the end, you can simply target the plural. You’ll be targeting the singular in the process. e.g. Target “tennis shoes” and you’ll be automatically targeting “tennis shoe” at the same time.
But if your plural is more than the addition of an “s” or “es”, never fear. In reality, you can target either and still enjoy a high ranking. Google is smart enough to identify the relationship between plural and singular. It knows that people who search for the plural may still get some value out of sites that target the singular. It’s true that - all else being equal - when a user searches for the plural, a site that targets the plural will outrank your site that targets the singular. But you can swing the balance in your favor simply by working harder on the number and quality of your inbound links. e.g. Take, for example, the distinction between "copywriters" and "copywriter".
Read more from SEO Sydney.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Keys to Successful Search Engine Marketing
If your website is not ranking high in search engines, you're burning money! However, optimising your website for search engines can often be confusing and time consuming. Here are some useful free Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tools to make it easier for you to improve your rankings.
1. Understanding your website's performance - Google Analytics
Google Analytics is simply a must-have. Having a website without an analytics tool such as Google Analytics, is like flying a plane without an instrument panel. There are easy-to-read charts that show you how many visitors you've had, how they found your website (e.g. from Google Adwords, organic search, referred websites), and what they did (e.g. request a free report), or did not do, once they were there. Critically, you can also find out which keywords users typed into search engines to find you. The key with analytics is to not be overwhelmed by all the data, but to ask yourself "so what does this mean" and most importantly "what action should I now take".
Installing analytics is quite easy, you just need to add a few lines of code to each page of your website. See Google's website, or have a chat with your web developer.
2. Google 'Page Rank' - The Google Toolbar
Google gives each page it visits (or "crawls") a score to reflect how important it sees that page. This is called "pagerank" (PR). It is a score out of 10, and the higher the better. It is only a rough guide, but it can be helpful to analyse your website, and also to judge whether to accept reciprocal links with another website. All things being equal, you'd rather have a link from a page with a ranking of 4 than a ranking of 1. Most small businesses pages are usually in the 1 to 4 range.
Search for "Google Toolbar" in Google, click the link, and follow the download instructions. Once installed, go to the Toolbar "settings" and "options", and turn on the "page rank and page info" button. Now load up your home page in the browser. Hover over the page rank button with your mouse. It should display Google's page rank (PR) score for your webpage.
3. 'Last Crawl Date' - The Google Toolbar
The same toolbar button can be used to easily find out when Google last crawled your website. It will most probably be within the past few weeks. You can check each of your web pages.
Load up your home page in the browser and click the black arrow on the "page rank" button. Then click "cached snapshot of page". You should see a date there.
If Google has never crawled the page, or the date was more than a few months ago, you probably need to develop more external links to that page. I would also recommend visiting Google Webmasters - Site Status for further help. (It's worth spending a bit of time on the Google Webmaster website as there are some very useful tools).
4. Competitor Analysis - "SEO for FireFox"
This tool will not work in Internet Explorer (IE). You will need to download the Firefox browser.
SEO for FireFox allows you to see a lot of useful SEO data about your competition. It was created by the famous (in SEO circles anyway) Aaron Wall of SEO Book.
Under each search result, there will be two lines of additional SEO data (shaded blue) relating to that website. (For example, if you're a business coach, and looking to rank for "business coach Sydney", type that into the Google search box.) By clicking on the right field, you can find how many links your competitor has, who is linking to them, how old their domain is, and who owns that domain, among other things. This data can be very helpful in planning your own SEO strategy. If your competitor is ranking highly for a keyword, they must be doing something right!
The tool can be downloaded from www.SEOBook.com. (You can also watch his instructional video).
5. Quick link checker using Yahoo!
If you want a very simple way of finding out who is linking to your website, or a competitor's website, and you don't want to download any tools, go to Yahoo's website.
In the search box, type "linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com.au -site:www.yourdomain.com.au", where www.yourdomain.com.au is the name of your website. (This technique will not work in Google, as Google does not show a complete list of links.)
Visit SEO Sydney for more detail..
1. Understanding your website's performance - Google Analytics
Google Analytics is simply a must-have. Having a website without an analytics tool such as Google Analytics, is like flying a plane without an instrument panel. There are easy-to-read charts that show you how many visitors you've had, how they found your website (e.g. from Google Adwords, organic search, referred websites), and what they did (e.g. request a free report), or did not do, once they were there. Critically, you can also find out which keywords users typed into search engines to find you. The key with analytics is to not be overwhelmed by all the data, but to ask yourself "so what does this mean" and most importantly "what action should I now take".
Installing analytics is quite easy, you just need to add a few lines of code to each page of your website. See Google's website, or have a chat with your web developer.
2. Google 'Page Rank' - The Google Toolbar
Google gives each page it visits (or "crawls") a score to reflect how important it sees that page. This is called "pagerank" (PR). It is a score out of 10, and the higher the better. It is only a rough guide, but it can be helpful to analyse your website, and also to judge whether to accept reciprocal links with another website. All things being equal, you'd rather have a link from a page with a ranking of 4 than a ranking of 1. Most small businesses pages are usually in the 1 to 4 range.
Search for "Google Toolbar" in Google, click the link, and follow the download instructions. Once installed, go to the Toolbar "settings" and "options", and turn on the "page rank and page info" button. Now load up your home page in the browser. Hover over the page rank button with your mouse. It should display Google's page rank (PR) score for your webpage.
3. 'Last Crawl Date' - The Google Toolbar
The same toolbar button can be used to easily find out when Google last crawled your website. It will most probably be within the past few weeks. You can check each of your web pages.
Load up your home page in the browser and click the black arrow on the "page rank" button. Then click "cached snapshot of page". You should see a date there.
If Google has never crawled the page, or the date was more than a few months ago, you probably need to develop more external links to that page. I would also recommend visiting Google Webmasters - Site Status for further help. (It's worth spending a bit of time on the Google Webmaster website as there are some very useful tools).
4. Competitor Analysis - "SEO for FireFox"
This tool will not work in Internet Explorer (IE). You will need to download the Firefox browser.
SEO for FireFox allows you to see a lot of useful SEO data about your competition. It was created by the famous (in SEO circles anyway) Aaron Wall of SEO Book.
Under each search result, there will be two lines of additional SEO data (shaded blue) relating to that website. (For example, if you're a business coach, and looking to rank for "business coach Sydney", type that into the Google search box.) By clicking on the right field, you can find how many links your competitor has, who is linking to them, how old their domain is, and who owns that domain, among other things. This data can be very helpful in planning your own SEO strategy. If your competitor is ranking highly for a keyword, they must be doing something right!
The tool can be downloaded from www.SEOBook.com. (You can also watch his instructional video).
5. Quick link checker using Yahoo!
If you want a very simple way of finding out who is linking to your website, or a competitor's website, and you don't want to download any tools, go to Yahoo's website.
In the search box, type "linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com.au -site:www.yourdomain.com.au", where www.yourdomain.com.au is the name of your website. (This technique will not work in Google, as Google does not show a complete list of links.)
Visit SEO Sydney for more detail..
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Realities of Getting Affordable SEO Services
Many web masters invest hundreds, even thousands of dollars into SEO services, and you've probably thought about doing the same thing too. But unless you've got a big website that generates lots of profits for you, you'll probably look for the most affordable SEO services on the market. And while there's nothing wrong with that, you'll have to manage your expectations somewhat because it's likely that the services you get will be far from top-notch.
Quantity Over Quality
You're sure to canvass around and field bids from SEO companies of all names and sizes. Some bids will be lower than others, but choosing the lowest bid isn't necessarily the best course of action to take, even if it's the lightest decision to make for your wallet.
Remember that, when considering SEO services, quality counts for as much as quantity. Even if you get a truckload of articles and links, they're not going to be of much benefit if they're not done properly or under the right standards. A single good but small SEO package can easily trump a humongous but substandard suite of SEO services.
Realities of Economy
Cheap SEO services rarely intersect with quality. The lower the bids go, the likelier it is that the quality of the output you get will take a similar direction. When you go for the cheapest bid you get from SEO companies, expect the quality to take a hit because those companies often sacrifice quality control. Rush services are also often out of the question for those econo-SEO services.
The lower quality is most apparent in output that you can read, such as blog posts and marketing articles. Cheapo SEO companies often give content that's very awkward to read or doesn't sound like natural, conversational English the way it's used on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. That already puts you at a disadvantage because your customers would be less willing to read through an article that doesn't even sound like it was written by a native English speaker.
It's a little less obvious in services like link building, which you don't get to see directly. Beware because low link building prices could come back to bite you. Many of the el cheapo companies use a very limited network of sites for link building, so the results will probably be marginal for your site. Chances are good that you would've gotten better rankings had you just done link building yourself.
A Good Perspective
Before you go out and survey the market for things like link building prices and SEO service rates, don't set your budget at an absolute amount. Go out there, get a few quotations and give yourself a realistic picture of the price range first. Defining a clear-cut budget and then trying to fit everything into that amount will probably result with your getting less than ideal quality services.
Remember that these SEO expenses aren't just purchases, they're investments. You're getting them not because you just want to buy them on a whim, but because the success of your site depends on them. You should aim not for the cheapest rates per se, but for the most reasonable prices for the quality.
Quantity Over Quality
You're sure to canvass around and field bids from SEO companies of all names and sizes. Some bids will be lower than others, but choosing the lowest bid isn't necessarily the best course of action to take, even if it's the lightest decision to make for your wallet.
Remember that, when considering SEO services, quality counts for as much as quantity. Even if you get a truckload of articles and links, they're not going to be of much benefit if they're not done properly or under the right standards. A single good but small SEO package can easily trump a humongous but substandard suite of SEO services.
Realities of Economy
Cheap SEO services rarely intersect with quality. The lower the bids go, the likelier it is that the quality of the output you get will take a similar direction. When you go for the cheapest bid you get from SEO companies, expect the quality to take a hit because those companies often sacrifice quality control. Rush services are also often out of the question for those econo-SEO services.
The lower quality is most apparent in output that you can read, such as blog posts and marketing articles. Cheapo SEO companies often give content that's very awkward to read or doesn't sound like natural, conversational English the way it's used on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. That already puts you at a disadvantage because your customers would be less willing to read through an article that doesn't even sound like it was written by a native English speaker.
It's a little less obvious in services like link building, which you don't get to see directly. Beware because low link building prices could come back to bite you. Many of the el cheapo companies use a very limited network of sites for link building, so the results will probably be marginal for your site. Chances are good that you would've gotten better rankings had you just done link building yourself.
A Good Perspective
Before you go out and survey the market for things like link building prices and SEO service rates, don't set your budget at an absolute amount. Go out there, get a few quotations and give yourself a realistic picture of the price range first. Defining a clear-cut budget and then trying to fit everything into that amount will probably result with your getting less than ideal quality services.
Remember that these SEO expenses aren't just purchases, they're investments. You're getting them not because you just want to buy them on a whim, but because the success of your site depends on them. You should aim not for the cheapest rates per se, but for the most reasonable prices for the quality.
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