It is because of this dramatic affect that speed has on user’s experience of a website, that Google has announced faster websites will be ranked higher. This is the first time that Google has officially announced that Speed does have a direct effect on Rankings. SEO guru’s have suspected this for a while and a fast website is always desired for usability reasons, but Google’s announcement has put any debate over this issue to rest.

Google uses its Googlebots to test how long a page takes to respond as well as Google toolbar to test page load times. Generate UK have invested a lot of time and money into our server capabilities. This means that the sites that we host on our server have quick and smooth load times. As demonstrated by the Google experiment speed not only judges your Google ranking but that the amount of users actually decreases with a slow website. This in turn will also have an effect on your conversion rate. With a slow running website traffic is less likely to stick around and ultimately not buy into your services or products.

A lot of people are concerned that this change will really only benefit larger organisations as they can afford to pay more for hosting. I believe this is a misconception. Small sites can often react and respond faster than larger corporations can to changes on the web.  Making small changes on a larger website can often be a slow process due to internal bureaucracy; whereas smaller sites can often make those small changes to help increase the speed of their website.

Currently less than 1% of search queries are effect by site speed according to Google. However Google have already released a list of tools to help test your sites speed. This could only be the beginning for the importance of site speed. Google’s passion for fast internet and dedication to releasing new tools demonstrates that this could be an extremely important signal for the future. Google have been using speed as a signal for several weeks now and there has been no dramatic change. But this simply could be the beginning of a bigger campaign for faster websites.

Generate UK has invested in a high performance server infrastructure for customers websites we host. We ensure that our server is fast, efficient and reliable. Google says that a 0.5 second delay in the page load speed of your website can reduce traffic by 20%. As a business can you afford to lose this amount of traffic? Generate UK servers deliver up to 35% more speed over traditional hardware, this is to ensure that your website does not suffer because of server speed restrictions.

On page content can also affect the speed of your website. Having a large number of images, flash files or Javascript can increase the time your page takes to load. There are tools that you can use to run reports on your websites speed which will tell you exactly how long each page takes to load as well as identifying areas that are slowing you website down. Follow this link to see which tools Google suggest you use. Alternatively there are other sites you can use such as websiteoptimisation.com.

It is important to remember that this is only one aspect or signal of SEO. Along with speed we still have to take into account on page and off page SEO. These are all areas of search engine optimisation that Generate UK specialises in. If you would like to get your website ranking higher in Google then why not talk to one of our SEO consultants. We can help advise you on areas of your site that may need improvement to benefit from higher rankings.

SEO is vitally important to help your website gain valuable traffic for desired keywords. There are two types of SEO, on page and off page. On page includes meta titles, keywords and quality content. . . all the things you would find on a web page while off page includes back links and all the things relating to your web page that aren’t on your page, simple. Many Search engine optimisation companies or SEO ‘Gurus’ will make huge promises to you offering you top spots on Google by optimising your site or buying links for you. However you do need to be slightly cautious of such people. In this blog I have compiled I list of things NOT to do in SEO, which I have appropriately titled SEO Fails! They say people learn from their mistakes, well here are a lot of other people’s mistakes for you to learn from!

1) Make sure all your URL’s are friendly.

The tagline of this site is ‘Internet made easy’ ironically their URL is not easy to read. Google hates URL’s like this, it is long, complicated and says nothing about what content is on this page. Make sure none of your pages look like this or have any % or ~ in them, keep it nice and easy for example www.generateuk.co.uk/seo.htm. The two other problems I have highlighted on this page is the navigation keywords are in white, therefore not readable as well as the content not actually being found! You do not want this on your website.

2) Use appropriate page titles

I think this site sells guitar straps . . . it’s just a guess! Although repetition gets your point across it also looks incredibly spamy! This website was ranking number one, but Google took disciplinary action and they are now on the second page. The title of you page is a great place to put your keywords, but make sure it doesn’t look like spam!

3) Don’t link to too many other websites

Although reciprocal links and link exchange can be a good way to increase your rankings, you again don’t want to come across as spam. This is an example of a website which has almost 100 links in its footer. Not very user friendly at all!

4) Make sure you own your own domain name!

This domain name is www.jimmatheson.com! So there is just one small thing wrong with Jim’s site and that is that it is promoting Claudia, his opposition! Make sure you own your own name or company name as a domain otherwise you are open to attack from competitors! For those who are going to try and find this site, it was taken down after the American election.

5)Do Not Keyword Stuff

Not only has this website stuffed its page with keywords he has also made them internal links. In terms of on page SEO, keywords and internal links in content are good. Just not to this extent!

All the above sites are examples of bad SEO. Hopefully by looking at these sites you would have laughed as well as learned something new. At Generate UK we take Search Engine Optimisation very seriously and want to make sure that your site ranks highly for your desired keywords. If you are concerned about your current Search Engine Optimisation or don’t actually do any SEO and would like to, then why not talk to one of our SEO Consultants.

The Internet marketers use all kinds of marketing techniques to get a formidable ranking which gives them the advantage of having created for themselves a leading edge over other similar Internet marketers. There are various marketing techniques used. However, the most important is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which forms the basic foundation in driving more and more traffic to your website. You need to have your business known to people, and SEO, if done correctly, provides you the automated way in getting traffic to your website. The important thing about doing SEO correctly is to research for correct keywords that you need to use. This needs your effort in spending time to find the keyword phrases and use them with the other known marketing techniques.

You need to learn SEO techniques only once, and as you gather the experience and get to understand the technique better, you should be able to apply the knowledge to all your future website designs. The main thing is selecting the proper keywords and keyword phrases for each of the websites you design which affects greatly the traffic driven to your sites. In order to succeed as an Internet marketer you would need to learn the other techniques involved, but SEO remains as the most important technique which can have your website exposed to the people looking for whatever you are trying to sell.

The intention in marketing your products, services, and anything else is to earn money, and more correctly you apply the concepts of SEO techniques and have traffic driven to your website, you stand a better chance to promote your business. There are tools like Google Adwords Tool which helps immensely to search for the right key phrases. There are several free stuffs available for SEO experts for proper handling of your advertising techniques, and when you combine these with the techniques for advanced marketing methods you get the results that you want.

SEO is vital to your Internet business since the traffic driven to your website is mainly through search engines. In order to gain the leading edge over your competitors, SEO plays a vital part in designing your website, and it is virtually the only way you could get a decent ranking in search results obtained through Google or like search engines. Search Engine optimisation techniques applied correctly to your website makes all the difference between high traffic frequency and being lost amidst the numerous other businesses.

‘Online marketing’ doesn’t mean an awful lot to someone like me, who had never given it much thought. From what I have realised, a company’s website is crucial to advertising their products or services and to help raise awareness of their brand. This is done by building and designing an aesthetically pleasing site, which has all the different functions a company may require, for example, purchasing goods online. Although, once a website has been created it needs to be marketed effectively, otherwise it is completely useless as nobody would know that it existed, and it would go to waste. It can be marketed using: 

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - This increases visibility in search engines escalating the venue’s profile, by improving search engine listings.
• Email marketing campaigns - sending highly targeted emails to a selection of people to promote a client.
• Pay per click - advertising via the internet using search engines.
• Content management systems are used to manage a business’s site.
• And a few more that I haven’t grasped yet, but I’m in the process of familiarizing myself with them.

Once I managed to come to terms with SEO and all that jazz, it was time to start making the phone calls and to book meetings with potential clients. In preparation, I did some ghost calls, where he would pretend to be a potential client, and I would attempt to sell Generate UK’s services. This was very entertaining, as my colleague got into different characters to make it more authentic, but as a result, I couldn’t stop laughing! Nonetheless, they proved to be very useful, and prepared me for the different reactions I received. The rest of the team helped me feel really relaxed, were very encouraging, and great at explaining all the technical terms I struggled with, and they all managed with my excessive amount of questions fired at them.

The biggest challenge I came across this week was; the term ‘search engine optimisation’ (which still sounds a bit alien). The challenge lies with learning about what Generate UK actually does and then attempting to sell their services… What a challenge that was. But, now I’ve got the basic knowledge I need, and my confidence is slowly growing, I’ll look forward to achieving even more next week and having fun along the way.

I’ll look forward to continuing my journey next week, and sharing it with you.

The Red House has been a part of the Whitchurch community for over 50 years and has now been sympathetically modernised, retaining much of its traditional charm. The original open fires are now complimented by a warm and friendly atmosphere, great service, an excellent menu and some very ‘fishy’ wallpaper! 

The Red House quickly realised that managing their online reputation was paramount in encouraging customers through the doors; local customers needed to be made aware that The Red House was again open for business and the venue needed to be found by potential customers from outside the area who may have never visited before. 

The Red House also wanted to focus on making their site as visible as possible in the search engine results through a campaign of search engine optimisation. This ensured that location based searches delivered ‘The Red House’ website as a result, raising the venue’s profile both locally and nationally. 

The results are clear; using web based review and directory sites, a significant growth in the volume of site traffic has been measured (an increase of approximately 270% since March 2009). In fact, 25% of all website visitors are currently from these sites. Traffic generated by search engine referrals has also grown and is now up to approximately 40%. 

This substantial increase in the number of unique visitors to The Red House website has not only generated more reservations and Internet enquiries, but has also promoted The Red House brand to a substantial number of homes and businesses. 

Generate UK look forward to a very successful year working alongside The Red House team. 

Sandra Bryant, Proprietor of The Red House Pub and Restaurant stated “The key challenge for any new business is letting people know that you exist. Generate UK were confident from the outset that they could build an online presence quickly that would help build our business reputation.  The work Generate UK are doing is brilliant; they are professional, always deliver their promises and have a very grounded commercial thought process. I’m very excited about the work that Generate UK and The Red House will be completing in the future.”

Click to view The Red House website 

If you would like to discuss how online PR or search engine optimisation could help your business please do not hesitate to contact us on 01635 550431.

There has been some interesting predictions this week, most notably from industry voice E-consultancy who have predicted that the expenditure in search engine marketing is likely to be nearly £2.8 billion by the end of the current year, an increase of around 25% year on year. That’s a fairly healthy growth prediction, especially if you believe the doom and gloom about the economic outlook.

So why are the well respected E-consultancy group predicting this rise? To start with, we are in the middle of an upwards curve when it comes to online spend. The growth has been evident for a number of years and will more than likely continue so for the next few years before finding a nice level.

The growth in online spend has not been without casualties, above the line advertising has been steadily slowing, in fact it is predicted that online spend will overtake television advertising spend in the next few years.. If a business has not had their marketing budget reduced, then they are most likely having conversations about where the best place to put their marketing pounds might be. This means we are getting closer to the real reason why E-consultancy are absolutely correct.

Businesses are making decisions to put more of their budget into online marketing strategies. The business decision is the fact that they can quickly measure a return on investment. They can quickly see the results of their campaigns and they know they have more chance of reaching their targeted audience who have money to spend. Altogether they have a more potent marketing weapon.

So it is a pretty safe bet that online advertising spend will continue to grow for the next few years. Although, we do think that the market will become more competitive. Traditionally agencies will extend their digital capabilities, design companies will introduce new services, which should lead to some consolidation in the market.

As competition grows, the agency fees will start to be eroded. This is an interesting debate that is waiting to happen. What parts of online advertising services can be commoditised? I’ve already seen companies offering email marketing and SEO type solutions for incredibly low fees. Is this good for the market or does it confuse our customers?

In summary, search engine marketing is in a very healthy position. There will almost certainly be more competition for each customer and that should should be welcomed. However, for the time being; measurable marketing and performance management seem to be winning out, this is why online marketing will continue with steady growth. It is the agencies who need to watch out for the recession, especially those who are not innovating and helping their clients to deliver winning campaigns.