Doing well in search engine rankings is always a bit of a mystery to an outsider, but here are some simple things that you can take care of yourself which will help your website do better.

1. Make sure the content on your site is original to you
2. Don’t copy content, it’s known as duplicate content , whether this is on a page or across your site or both, as Google will penalise you for it
3. Do ensure that page content, the page heading and the page title tag match the search queries you want the page to do well for
4. Avoid unnatural language on a page, or overuse of a particular word or phrase in an attempt to optimise for SEO – first and foremost you want to appeal to your customers
5. If you’ve got advertisements on your website avoid a high amount of inappropriate adverts, especially high on the page, particularly when they don’t match the search queries a page does well for
6. Avoid a high percentage of boilerplate or standard content – that’s repeat content on every page, again this might be picked up as duplicate content
7. Using free tools from Google called Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools, you can look for high bounce rates on page or website (this is when a visitor enters the website and leaves without continuing to view other pages) as this can indicate irrelevant content
8. Try to avoid a low click through percentage from Google’s results pages either for page or site
9. Increase visit times to a page or website by regularly updating copy and making sure it’s interesting and relevant
10. A low percentage of users returning to a website can indicate that content isn’t updated regularly or that it’s not original
11. Get quality inbound links to a page or site, as this indicates it’s a good source of information
12. Use social media to promote pages on your site or your website, both Bing and Google have stated in interviews that their search results are positively affected by social media such as Tweets, Facebook and +1s.

Use social media to promote pages on your site or your website, both Bing and Google have stated in interviews that their search results are positively affected by social media such as Tweets, Facebook and +1s.

If you’d like a free SEO and social media audit, and for more information on how you can improve your online marketing give us a call on 01202 788333

B2B Online Marketing, Google Analytics, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation

Google has become the latest tech giant to come under scrutiny for allegedly breaching the European Union’s antitrust rules. It follows in the footsteps of Microsoft, penalised for its dominance of the browser market with Internet Explorer.

Today’s Daily Telegraph reports that Google is being investigated over claims that its search functions were discriminating against certain businesses in its search rankings.

Google has an approximate 90 per cent share of the UK’s search market and complaints have been received from three companies: price comparison service Foundem; EJustice.fr, a French legal search engine; and Ciao, a European shopping search engine that’s actually owned by Microsoft.

Foundem initially complained about Google in August 2009. The general feeling is that, because these three sites could offer services that compete with Google’s own, they are being demoted by Google’s algorithms.

Google themselves don’t seem particularly fazed by the threat of investigation. They offer a response on their blog, admitting that their search is “not perfect”. However, they remain confident that their business is operating fairly:

“While we will be providing feedback and additional information on these complaints, we are confident that our business operates in the interesets of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law,” Julia Holtz, Senior Competition Counsel for Google writes on their blog.

Of course, many tech-savy readers will remember that just over a year a go the boot was on the other foot when Google joined the EU antitrust case against Microsoft’s IE browser, accusing the market of being uncompetitive. Internet Explorer was bundled with Microsoft Operating Systems, which Mozilla, Opera and Google (after launching Chrome) did not approve of.

The European Competition Commission ruled Microsoft had to offer their users more choice, and it has been announced today that from Monday (March 1 2010) users will be offered a selection of browsers instead of having IE forced upon them.

We wait with anticipation for the results of the Google inquiry, and the implications any ruling might have for search in the not so distant future.

Read the Telegraph story here.

And the Google Blog response to allegations here.

And the Browser Choice Launch Date story here.

Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimisation

It’s easy to exclude certain visitors from you Google Analytics results by using Filters. Team members who are using a static IP, for example, can be excluded by this method. But what about other visitors using a dynamic IP, such as team members working from home or remotely from another office?

The good news is, there’s now an easy way to exclude these visitors using the new Google Exclusion Cookie, and what’s more it takes just two steps to set up.

The Google Exclusion Cookie method has been created specifically to target visitors using dynamic IP addresses. Based on a cookie file and a dedicated exclusion filter, this is how it works:

Step 1

First, set up your exclusion cookie. Create a new, blank html page on your site with the following address:

www.mysite.com/ga-exclude.html

The code should be as follows. Please update your  the Google script calls with the Google script calls for you account:

<html>

<head>

<title>Analytics Exclusion</title>

<meta content=”noindex, nofollow” />

</head>

<body onLoad=”javascript:pageTracker._setVar(’exclude_visitor’);”>

<div>

<h1>Google Analytics Exclusion Cookie is now set</h1>

<p>Your visits to this site will no longer affect the analytics statistics.</p>

<p>Please note: If you use a different browser to visit this site you will need to visit this page again.</p>

</div>

<script>

var gaJsHost = ((”https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);

document.write(unescape(”%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));

</script>

</body>

</html>

The _setVar() method in the above code is stored in the _utmv cookie, a persistent cookie with an expiration date that can be set for up to two years, and is only set up if the _setVar() method is called. This happens when a visitor visits the page; when the _utmv cookie is created, all information about the visit and visitor are stored in this cookie file.

After setting up the cookie you should insert standard Google Analytics tracking code on the page and save this page on your server.

Step 2

Next you have to set up an Exclusion Filter in Google Analytics. Log in to your Google Analytics Account, choose the profile you want to edit and create a new filter. Give it a name, set Filter Type to Custom Filter and choose Exclude. From the drop-down menu next to the Filter field, select User Defined and name your Filter Pattern exclude_visitor. Leave Case Sensitive as No and save your filter.

Note that exclude_visitor was used in _setVar() method as the method argument and it needs to be the same in the Filter Pattern Value. If this value is different, your filter will be unable to read your cookie.

When your exclusion cookie and exclusion filter have been created, you need to point the visitor you want to excluded to the cookie page, www.mysite.com/ga-exclude.html. Once the cookie is on your chosen visitor’s browser, it will remain there for 24 months, during which time your chosen visitor’s visits will not be included in your Google Analytics data.

Google Analytics, Website Analytics Google Analytics, Google Exclusion Cookie, Web Analytics

Google Adwords has recently given its interface something of a makeover. These changes will become mandatory in the next few months; which means we’re all going to have to get used to them. So what are the new features?

One significant change is that the interface now looks a lot more like the Google Analytics interface. Things are a lot more visual: where previously there was tabular data there are now graphs embedded on the page. You’re able to customise these graphs to suit your needs.

Where previously you would find tabs for Analytics and Reports, you will now find a single Reporting tab, also containing a Website Optimizer tool. There have been improvements to navigation, too, with the addition of a sidebar that enables you to move more quickly between AdGroups and campaigns.

There have also been improvements at campaign level, enabling you to sort all of your ad groups by key metrics so that you can easily focus on high, or low performing articles.

Writing for ClickZ, Kevin Lee provides a valuable assessment of the Google Adwords changes, and a comparison with Microsoft’s adCenter, which has also recently undergone something of a facelift.

You can read Kevin’s analysis here: http://www.clickz.com/3633812

Google Analytics, Google Website Optimiser, Website Analytics Google Analytics, Web Analytics

If you’re new to the world of online marketing, terms such as SEO and Google Analytics can seem like little more than gobbledygook. Even if your business has had a presence on the web for some time, many people, particularly smaller businesses, don’t fully understand the terms or the services offered by the likes of Google, and thus their websites aren’t working as well as they should for their business.

In a recent article for the Sydney Herald, Valerie Khoo explored how relatively few people knew about the power of Google to help boost sales and raise the bottom line. Many were scared off by the terminology, or reluctant to admit they didn’t fully understand it. But it’s vital that business owners don’t shy away from the useful tools available to help their online marketing strategy.

At LexisClick, we specialise in SEO and know just how important it is to your business. That’s why we work with you to fully understand your business’s needs and objectives. We also have experts in website analytics, including the increasingly ubiquitous Google Analytics tool, and can help you to get the best from its features.

Stephen Bavister, Director of LexisClick, said: “We’re aware that, like anyone working in the industry, it’s easy to get caught up in the jargon – which can be confusing for people unfamiliar with the terminology. That’s why we’re happy to explain things in layman’s terms and don’t expect that you have to understand all the jargon to get the most out of online marketing. We’re conscious that it’s easy to blind people with science; we take care not to do that.”

If you’d like more information about our services, please contact us.

Read the Sydney Herald article in full here:

www.smh.com.au/news/technology/search-for-sales-success/2009/04/14/1239474853817.html

B2B Online Marketing, Google Analytics, Marketing General, Search Engine Optimisation Google Analytics, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, Website Testing