Over the last two weeks or so Google has changed its algorithms slightly; or at least we think so. Those who know the basics about SEO know that title tags and incoming links (anchor text) are important. Title tags are still very important for on-site optimisation and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. The areas in which changes have occurred are with visitor tracking within the website, and from the source of the incoming links.

Site Performance: For those highly competitive keywords that you are (more…)

Over the last ten years of search the goal for search engine optimisers was to get their client websites into the top 10 or 1st page of the search results. Recently, people’s search habits have changed slightly, they are more impatient than ever before and are getting better at selecting their own chosen search keywords. One word searches are becoming less used, people are now using ‘two to four keywords‘ when searching on the internet as they realise the likelihood of them finding what they want will increase if they use long tail keywords.

The more refined search engine algorithms become, naturally the better the search engine results will also get. With Matt Cutts and his team of spam killers doing such a good job at destroying ‘Page Rank‘ to any site that adopts black hat SEO techniques, the search results are becoming more aligned to the searchers needs. We can see in the below image the actions internet users are using when searching on the 1st page of Google.

From position 1 to 5 the click volume decreases gradually. There is a slight showing of clicks on the right – hand column, which is Google’s Adwords (paid advertising). From positions 6 to 10 very little clicks have been detected by the heat map.

This visual heatmap explains graphically how important it is to be in the top 5 or more importantly to be #1 in Google otherwise your website is losing out in significant traffic.

To all my loyal readers; apologies for the delay since my last post. The only excuse I have is that I have been over snowed with client work and so I just have not had the time to pull my sleeves up and write this post..

In my last post, Google vs Yahoo vs MSN – Part 1, I discussed in brief the differences in what Google and Yahoo look for in a website, with regards to search engine optimisation of course.

While doing research last night on MSN’s algorithms I came across an article written in SEO Book’s website. This article covers everything one needs to know about the three major search engines. In the beginning it gives a brief overview of Google, Yahoo and MSN’s algorithm. It then goes into much more detail explaining the pros and cons of each of the three search engines.

Here’s the link: Google vs Yahoo vs MSN

I may be a bit lazy by referring you to another website but why recreate the wheel? SEO Book’s description is the best I have found on the internet and I don’t think I could of done a better job at explaining the differences. Enjoy.

The importance of posting comments in blogs is coming to realisation in the search engine optimisation community. There are millions of blogs out there but only a few are becoming really popular. Why? because the bloggers write quality content. There was the old SEO concept of getting the correct keyword density to get noticed by the likes of Google but internet users are wisening up.

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The largest portion of searches contain two words finds Amsterdam-based research firm OneStat but this does not necessarily mean that two keywords will increase traffic through your website. Internet users who type two words for a search engine query account for 31.9 percent of searches worldwide. Three-word phrases are used for 27 percent of searches. A single word accounts for 15.2 percent of queries, and four words are used for 14.8 percent of searches. (more…)