But achieving this feat is increasingly difficult, considering everyone wants the same spot. While everyone cannot be at the top, getting the basics right will improve your chances of landing the prize.

So, in this piece, we will be discussing the pitfalls you should avoid in your quest to rise through the ranks.

Having no sitemap.

Let’s describe what a sitemap is – it is an XML file that feeds data to search engines. What type of data? The sitemap provides data about the most important pages of the website. These may include the date of the last update and what a page has over the others.

With this information, the spider is better positioned to crawl the site more efficiently and accurately. Note that having a sitemap does not automatically translate to search engine success; it is one of those little moves that can better your chances.

Unsuccessful canonical domain check.

Your domain may fail a canonical check if your homepage can be accessed via multiple URLs. As harmless as it may appear, different URLs loading the same content is an issue. This leads to the division of inbound like equity, which depletes the SEO value of the website.

When this happens, configure the 301 redirects to redirect the duplicate pages to a single location or fix the canonical tags.

Slow load times.

When Google announced its decision to consider the loading times of a website as part of its algorithm in 2010, it forces websites to work on reducing their loading times both on desktop and mobile.

Not sure what your site’s load time is? Use the PageSpeed Insights tool from Google or any other page analysis tool to estimate your site’s load time. If the analysis confirms that your website has a slow process speed, you should make some changes.

First, remove render-blocking JavaScript and CSS above-the-fold. You should also implement browser caching and optimize images. You should also enable compression and minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Not having header tags.

The importance of header tags cannot be overemphasized. The structure it brings into the mix makes it easier for search engines to understand the important parts. The header tags also help in prioritizing the content on a page for correct and effective uses.

When using header tags, adopt a unique main tag that clearly states the page’s purpose using the main keywords. Consider using tags where applicable in your subheadings.

Having no image description.

Using the right image is half the job; the other half is adding the proper image description. Your image description should be a descriptive and relevant text. You can have it as an Alt attribute.

Image descriptions help search engines to understand your images. When adding descriptions to your images, make them clear, concise, relevant, and keyword-rich.

Having inadequate metadata.

Your SEO success still largely depends on your metadata, especially title tags. Your title tag is the first line of text a user sees about your website on the search result page.

For best results, keep your title tags brief – not more than 70 characters – and use the relevant keywords. Alongside title tags, you should also focus on meta descriptions. It is your best chance of convincing the user to click through to your page.

Your meta descriptions should appear like a copy. You can easily add and edit your meta descriptions if you are using a CMS system.

Keyword spamming.

It is not enough to research and identify the right keywords. You must also use them correctly. Copywriters must understand the need to balance the use of target keywords naturally in a page’s body.

Using the keywords excessively and unnaturally will put your SEO score at risk. The search engine will struggle to identify what to rank for. Instead, use selected variations of the keywords of the page. While using keywords to impress Google, do not confuse your readers.

You must satisfy your readers and Google spiders.

Duplicating content.

It is common to see duplicate pages within the same website, especially on larger eCommerce websites. This can be counterproductive. For instance, applying filters to product listings on eCommerce websites may lead to duplication. Likewise, having several slight variations on a product on the same website can lead to duplication.

To fix this, use a canonical tag. Canonical tags help to identify duplicate pages by linking them with the corresponding main pages so that a single page gets all the SEO values.

Not naming links correctly.

When you add links to your page, you do so via anchor texts – the text’s clickable part. Now, when the search engine spider crawls your website, one of the reasons is to assess the relevance of any associated page.

It is easier to use random anchor texts like ‘follow this link’ when linking external pages. But this will not do any good for your SEO efforts. Instead, use anchor texts containing relevant keywords that you want your page to rank for.

More importantly, avoid over-optimizing your anchor texts – it can be counterproductive.

In Conclusion

The mistakes we have discussed above, if fixed, will definitely help your online marketing efforts and improve your overall results. But more importantly, it will contribute more to your revenue.

Understandably, it may seem like a lot of work. However, start with one or two and add more gradually until you have ticked the boxes. If you ever encounter a hitch while at it, feel free to contact professionals for help.

You can reach us via (insert email), we will be delighted to help you get the best out of your digital marketing efforts.

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Article by EDOT3 SEO Agency Newcastle

The post Onsite SEO: Mistakes to Avoid! appeared first on Web Design Newcastle, Digital Design Agency Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 1SG. UK.

Your entire SEO campaign, including both on- and off-site optimization, will revolve around your chosen keywords. Therefore, you must ensure that you do effective keyword research before you do anything else.

Build a List

After you have chosen a niche, you need to research keywords which are connected to that niche. Your first stop should be the Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool. Enter your niche and the tool will return hundreds of related keywords for you.

Copy and paste all information into a spreadsheet. Then go through the list and search the tool for these keywords. It will then show even more ideas. Using this method, you should be easily able to build a list which contains thousands of entries.

To get even more keywords, you can use Google Trends to see what is popular at the moment. Research current trends and extract the keywords, then put these keywords into the Adwords tool, and it will return their number of monthly searches. Finally copy and paste this information into your spreadsheet.

You can get more ideas from Google’s auto-complete. When you type a keyword into the search bar, it will try to predict what you want to search for. You can use this information in the same way as Google Trends to add to your list. Similarly, you can do the same with “related searches,” which are located at the bottom of the search page.

Finally, there are other free tools you can use which will return a list of keywords such as ubersuggest.io . Enter in your keywords and it will return a list of related keywords for you. Again, put this into Google’s keyword planner, get the number of monthly searches, and add it to your list.

Cleaning the List

If you have thoroughly gone through this process, you should have collected a list which contains many thousands of entries. You’ll find that a number of them will be duplicates, which you want cleared from the list. Fortunately, Excel has an option to do this automatically for you.

Now you can sort your data according to the number of monthly searches. Your overall aim is to find keywords with a high number of monthly searches which are also fairly easy to rank.

Filtering the List

Depending on your niche, you will want to look for different types of keywords. For example, if your website sells shampoo, you’ll want keywords that contain the word buy or a synonym such as purchase, such as buy shampoo online or purchase shampoo. This will help to increase your conversion rates because people typing in these keywords are looking to buy something.

One the other hand, if your website is an informative blog, you may want to consider filtering questions, lists, and how-to guides, as they are all popular types of blog posts.

Keyword Difficulty

Now that you have started to reduce the number of keywords you have, you’ll need to assess their ranking difficulty. Try to find keywords which have a high number of searches and don’t have a lot of competition.

Here, you just need to type the keyword into Google and look at the competition on the first page. The websites listed on the first page of a search containing your chosen keyword will be your direct competition.

Check their domain authority and backlinks. The more authority and high-quality backlinks they have, the harder they are to outrank. Also look for exact title matches. If most of the first page contain exact title matches, it will also be more difficult to rank highly.

Automated Software

To save time, you can use tools such as Long Tail Pro and Ultimate Niche Finder to speed up the process. They can both automatically scrape huge lists of keywords and analyze the competition, meaning that a lot of the hard work has been done for you. They are premium tools with a paid subscription, but if you’re doing a lot of keyword research, they can both save you a lot of time.

Choosing the Best Keywords

After analyzing all the keywords in your long list, you should now have a list of your targeted keywords for each page on your website or article published on your blog. You should also use related keywords on the same page as your targeted keywords so that your keyword density for one keyword doesn’t get too high.

After effectively researching a list of keywords, you are now ready to start your SEO campaign and start tracking your SERPs. SEO is an ongoing process and you need to keep working hard not only get high rankings in the first place, but to also maintain them over time.

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Looking for an SEO agency to take your business to the next level? SEO agency Newcastle will transform your business by finding, convincing and converting your audience.

The post How to do Effective Keyword Research for SEO appeared first on Web Design Newcastle, Digital Design Agency Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 1SG. UK.

A properly implemented search engine optimization (SEO) marketing strategy can enable an SMB to reach the approximately 2.4 billion people across the globe who use the Internet to purchase goods and services. In North America alone, 78.6 percent of the population regularly goes online.

You Want Your Business to Grow

Basically, an Internet presence (also called online visibility) refers to the ease and speed with which consumers find a business and its products or services after an Internet search. It also considers the level of your business’s brand recognition created online.

SMBs often struggle with the issue of satisfactory visibility on the Internet. Some SMB owners delude themselves that they can’t afford to hire search engine optimization marketers or writers. They don’t realize that when they invest in quality SEO they’re investing in the long-term success of their business.

What About Social Media and SMB Online Visibility?

SMB owners and experts agree that any successful SMB starts by bolstering their Internet presence via social media along with SEO marketing. An SMB determined to succeed depends on both marketing platforms to gain a competitive edge.

An effective SEO marketing strategy may be somewhat costly. A well-managed search engine optimization marketing strategy can boost an SMB’s online visibility, which promotes initial success, growth and stability.

If you are looking for an SEO agency, seoagencynewcastle.com will transform your business by finding, convincing and converting your audience.

The post Your SMB Needs an SEO Marketing Strategy appeared first on Web Design Newcastle, Digital Design Agency Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 1SG. UK.

You are studying competitor websites to see how they get organic page one search results, so that you can apply some of the same techniques to the search engine optimisation (SEO) or design of your own site.

You want to visit the sites that come up on page one of search results for each search word or phrase that you typed into the search bar.

You’re looking at the page one organic search results, and not at the PPC ads that appear at the top or the sides of the organic results.

Make sure you have your different search words or phrases noted down, and then do your searches.  Do not start visiting the sites that come up on page one of the results (unless you’re really only doing one keyword search) until you’ve gone through your entire list of search words and phrases.

Take note of the websites that appear more than once in the results on page one for different search terms.  If a website is coming up on page one of the results for a search term, that’s good, but if some sites are coming up on page one for a variety of different search words and search phrases, they’re obviously doing a lot better – a person looking for information on the Internet can find those sites by using more than just one search term.  One never knows what a person might type into a search bar, and if your site can appear on page one of results for more than one search term, that’s excellent.

Once you’re heading to any particular site, be ready to just sit back and get a “first impression” when the site opens.

1. How long does it take to open?
2. Does any image near the top immediately tell you what the site is about?
3. Does the website have a minimal but effective look?
4. Are the navigation tabs easily visible?
5. What is the font size – is it easy to read?
6. Is the text nicely spaced, or all squashed up?
7. Are there calls to action?
8. What are the main colours?
9. Are there any videos visible above the fold?
10. Are there any small forms visible above the fold?
11. How does looking at the page make you feel – interested to learn more, bored, excited, calm, or irritated?
12. Is it obvious that one needs to scroll down to read or view more?
13. Is it obvious how long the site has been live on the Internet – if so, how long is that?
14. Is the site mostly a static website or is it a blog?
15. Do the site owners have a blog – is it attached to the website, or separate?

Now look at just the text:

1. How much text content is there?
2. Does the text have links in it that go to other pages of the site?
3. How much text is near the very top of the page?
4. Is there a lot of text in any sidebars?
5. Is the text really text or is it an image?
6. If the text is an image, does an alt tag pop up when you hover your mouse over it?
7. What are the words in the alt tags of images?
8. Are the navigation tabs text or images?
9. Do image navigation tabs have alt tags?
10. What is the domain name and which keywords appear in it?
11. Are the main keywords in the main body of text related to the keywords in the title, description, image alt tags and text links on the web page?
12. Is the grammar good and is the spelling correct?

Now look at navigation:

1. Do the navigation tabs really take you to where they should?
2. If the navigation tabs take you to where they should, is it easy to again navigate from that second page to wherever else you want to be on the site?
3. Do the navigation tabs have drop downs?
4. Is there a sitemap?
5. How many pages does the site have?
6. Is there a resources page or a link partner page?
7. What are the resources and who are the link partners?
8. How many text links are visible on the page?
9. Are there any RSS feeds and what is the content being fed?

Now look at the coding (click view source):

1. Is there a doc type declaration in the first line of coding?
2. Is the Meta tag coding good – does the title, description and keywords match those of the web page?
3. Does the Meta tag coding also match the title and description of the search result when you did your search?
4. Are there robot crawl instructions?
5. Is the content that’s on the web page also in the coding, or is a script calling the content in?

Use free online tools to check other aspects of SEO:

1. What are the Meta tag relevancy percentages?
2. What is the page rank of the homepage?
3. How many backlinks does the site have?
4. Where are the backlinks coming from?
5. Which main keywords are repeated the most and exactly how many times are they repeated?
6. Which main keywords appear in the text links and how many are there of each?
7. Which main keywords appear in the alt tags of images?
8. How many people use those keywords to search for information every month?
9. Does the website owner use PPC advertising?
10. What is the wording of the PPC adverts?
11. How much is the website owner paying per click?

Conclusion:

Once you’ve noted and compared the contents of the top sites, it is likely that you will notice many similar SEO techniques being used.  Use the same techniques to improve the SEO of your own site (or the site of a client.)

During the competitor website analysis process you may also become more aware of which design and navigation techniques work best to keep a visitor on a site for longer.

The post Improve SEO by doing Competitor Website Analysis appeared first on Web Design Newcastle, Digital Design Agency Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 1SG. UK.

Most of these businesses have at least a viable plan for utilizing the power of the web. There are websites that offer entertainment and earn revenue from advertising. Some sites offer waress and services for sale or provide access to information sources for small fees. The options are as inexhaustible as an entrepreneur’s imagination.

This article is intended to help the small, local business make the best use of the web for improving the local customer base upon which the business depends. A small niche restaurant, local flower shop, bakery or auto repair center does not have anything to sell directly to website visitors. In most cases these businesses have nothing to offer to anyone outside their community and do not need to advertise outside that small locale.

Almost everyone has some vague idea that a website is a good thing. People have their own personal sites or pages and there are few businesses that have not been approached by web designers offering to build a site for them. Many have paid for a web site and in truth have a tiny presence on the web. Very few reap any reward from the expense of setting up a simple site and even fewer ever make an effort to follow-up on the potential that a web site has for growing a business.

Here are 7 relatively easy techniques for making the best of a small business website.

Advertise the website as a major part of your regular advertising.
Almost all small businesses will have an advertising budget. The website URL should be included in all advertising. It should be mentioned in radio and television ads and featured prominently in print ads. Give the prospective customer some reason to visit the site by announcing discounts or other online specials in conventional adverts .

Use the site to develop a mailing list email and/or regular mail
When visitors come to the website there should be some incentive to get them to give you their contact information. A mailing list is a very powerful advertising tool. The cost of a discount coupon or some product being offered as a prize in a drawing can be paid back quickly with a large focused mailing list. This mailing list is then used to announce weekly specials or new products or services.

Keep the site content fresh – weekly updates and specials.
Web users nowadays have learned to expect entertainment and fresh content from the websites they visit. Content can be reviews of new products, local stories about the winners of the prize giveaways on the site, videos, or almost any visual content with entertainment value. It is important that this content be updated often to keep visitors coming back to see what’s new.

Offer regular specials exclusively for site visitors.
There should be some special offers available to website visitors only. The print ads and any on-site posters should announce the fact that website visitors have special access to specials. The idea is to get your customers to visit the site and join the mailing lists. A local business will benefit greatly from a focused local mailing list.

Keep the site modern
Modern websites are dynamic and personal. Use the tools available to web programmers to establish direct communication with each return visitor. Combining a simple database with a visitor registration form and cookies will allow the site to greet each return visitor by name. The visitor’s recent history and preferences can be saved. It is even possible to let a visitor select the language, text size and colors used on the site when he or she visits. Along with making sure you have a good modern web design, another important aspect of the modern website is accessibility. The site should include support of text readers for visually impaired and the ability to detect and adjust for the type of device being used to view the site.  Smart phones and the new devices from Apple Inc. are extremely popular. Any successful website will have content that displays the right way on these new handheld devices.

Make sure your site is included in any local business directories
Every metropolitan area has at least one service that lists local businesses in directory form. Many of these are free to businesses at the basic service level with fees increasing depending on the extras a business wants to add. A website link is as important as a phone number and address to the modern consumer. People want to know what to expect before visiting a new restaurant or what the business hours are for a local photography studio. Today’s small businesses are often focused on niche markets and a web site is the ideal way to describe the businesses focus to potential clients.

Use some type of high-tech traffic generating tricks such as SEO.
A potential customer using the web to find a local business will enter search terms that describe his interest. In order for a small business website to be noticed it needs to be positioned on the first page of any search engine results. In national or international searches, web businesses spend jillions to fine tune and optimize their positions in search results. This is called Search Engine Optimisation and it is a huge business for internet-based companies.
For the small, local business the search optimisation is centered on the location and the service or product. Basic SEO techniques can be used to help a small site be found in searches for the local area. Include post codes, County, City, and even neighborhood in any content. Try to get other local businesses to link to the site. Make sure the specifics of the products or services being offered are listed. The more specific the content keywords are the more likely a site will be near the top when a search for specific terms is performed.

These seven suggestions, when used together for full effect, will establish a website as a powerhouse. Very few small businesses are in a position to fully implement this set of actions. Large web-based companies spend millions to implement this same set of actions to get maximum visitors to their sites. Small businesses who simply want to supplement their through-the-door traffic with a website can implement those suggestions that seem most appropriate for their business niche. It may become necessary to make a decision about priorities – spending time on website optimisation or spending time on the core business.

The post Small Business Website Marketing appeared first on Web Design Newcastle, Digital Design Agency Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 1SG. UK.

However, not all backlinks are built the same. It is important to obtain quality backlinks if you wish for search engines to take your website seriously.

Comments and Forums Posts – Easy, but Low Quality
The first step taken by those new to SEO is often a campaign of comments and forum posts. This is an easy, and often recommended, step which requires minimal effort. Unfortunately, this strategy has two problems which also result in minimal quality.

The first is that comments and forums generally frown on blatant plugs. You will therefor be reduced to general promotion, usually using links to your website’s main page. However, search engines don’t rank sites, they rank pages. While having many backlinks to your main page might have some minor effect, it doesn’t help your many pieces of content targeted towards specific keywords.

The second problem is that everyone is doing it. In order to obtain consistently high rankings in search engines you will need to stand out from the crowd. Comments and forum posts, even at their best, won’t put you ahead of your competitors.

Guest Posting – Gaining Authority
A much more effective way to build backlinks is by guest posting on websites related to your topic. While you may at first be intimidated – after all these websites are possible competitors – remember that it is a mutually beneficial deal. You will receive a backlink and the website you write for will receive free content.

Guest posting provides you with a backlink from a website with related topic to a page of your choosing. This is great for SEO. It tells search engines that your website is relevant and it allows you to target specific pages on your website for attention. Here at EDOT3 SEO Agency Newcastle we create content and get it published as guest posts which helps increase rank whilst delivering highly targeted traffic.

Guest posting can also improve SEO by sending interested visitors to your website. These visitors have already looked at your guest post and decided it was good enough to visit your website. There is a good chance that they will spend time on your website and click on various links, which positively effects your time on site and bounce rate metrics.

Breaking News and Information – The Best Backlinks
The best possible backlink situation occurs when content on your website becomes news. Once one major website decides to report on your content, chances are good that more websites will also report on it. Better yet, you will usually receive a backlink directly to the relevant page. This tells search engines that the page is important and maked that page more likely to show up as a front page result.

This will sometimes happen at random if you frequently post unique content. However, you can assist the process by being your own advocate. If you have a unique piece of content which you are proud of, send that information to other websites and blogs as a news tips.

Don’t Fall in the Downward Spiral
These are just some examples of what are and aren’t quality backlinks. Generally, the easier a backlink is to obtain, the less likely it is to be important. While it is easy to decide to take the volume route, higher quality backlinks are always better. They make your website stand out from the crowd as an important, reliable and relevant source.

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