I stumbled across an interesting blog post from the Google Webmaster Central team on the weekend.  It was the result of an audit which Google performed on over 100 of their different product pages and came in the form of a SEO report card.

It details how the main pages for these various products stacked up in their own search results and how they fair across a number of common SEO topics. It was designed to provide the product teams with ideas on how they can improve their products’ pages using simple and accepted optimisations. These optimisations were intended to not only help search engines understand the content of their pages better, but also to improve the users’ experience when visiting their sites.

What did I learn?

• Google, arguably the biggest & best search engine, still has to consciously think about search engine optimisation.
• By following simple rules you can greatly improve both your search engine rankings and your users experience of your website.

They’ve released the report card publicly so other companies and webmasters can learn from the report, which is filled with a heap of great examples taken straight from their products’ pages. It’s an interesting read, and shows that even the Google team make mistakes when it comes to some of the simple rules of SEO.

SEO Brisbane: If you’d like some help optimising your website and getting found on Google, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Disclaimer: The C+ image was created and added to give my post a little colour. Google and their products don’t necessarily deserve a c+, this was merely added for illustration purposes. Google, you get a A+ in my books, keep up the great work and keep releasing these great resources and products!

Glenn Murray’s SEO secrets have been somewhat of a guiding light for Bluewire Media’s SEO efforts in recent times (along with the tips from our SEO friends at Reload Media of course).

Glenn was generous enough with his time to do this interview with us.  Thanks Glenn!

If you stay all the way through the 17 minutes, you’re in for a treat, it’s a cracker!

In Part 1, Glenn asnwers:

1. In your SEO Secrets ebook, you talk about the importance of blogging – just how important is blogging for SEO?
2. Can you share your story of how blogging has impacted your own SEO copywriting business, Divine Write?

In Part Two, Glenn answers:

1. How much time should you commit to blogging?
2. What tips can you give to speed up getting traction on your blog?
3. Who are your favourite bloggers?
4. Finally, who should buy your ebook “SEO Secrets” & why?

Follow Glenn Murray on Twitter via @divinewrite.

Take his advice and check out these blogs: Jonathan Crossfield, ProBlogger, Angie’s Copywriting, Frontal Cortex and Blogging Teacher.

SEO Secrets

SEO Copywriting

We’ve followed Glenn’s advice in his brilliant ebooks SEO Secrets ($79.95 USD) and Practical SEO Copywriting ($39.97 USD)

As proof it works, Bluewire has made it to #3 for Web Design Brisbane (the most competive keyword phrase in our industry)!

Set up your blog: if you’d like help setting up your blog (using what we know from Glenn), call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

And of course there’s Glenn Murray’s web design company Silver Pistol to try as well!

I’ve learnt a lot in the last 12 months at Bluewire  - I can’t believe it’s been over a year already!

But one particular area of knowledge has helped me immensely, not only with the work I do here, but also with my side projects – search engine optimisation.

About six months ago the team had a quarterly priority to take on and participate in some P.D - The goal was to learn something new or extend our knowledge in a topic. I picked SEO.

There was an ulterior motive in this selection since my partner and I had just  launched the website for Home Spa, a mobile beauty & day spa business servicing the Brisbane area. Starting from scratch and having no real client base to build from, we really needed to be found in search engines before any business came our way.

Just today I’ve noticed we have improved the rankings for a couple of our targeted keywords which has increased the number of leads, and eventually appointments, we get through the website. I was proud of my ongoing efforts so thought I’d share some of the useful tools I’ve used along the way.

While they won’t necessarily help you get to #1, (I’ll leave that to the experts), these tools are super useful in tracking your progress:

Analytics gives you a plethora of information about how your users are finding your website, what they’re doing there and what they had for breakfast the morning they visited (well almost).  I’ve recently found creating custom reports to be particularly useful. With these we’re able to pull out quality information like which particular keywords are resulting in turning visits into conversions (or appointment requests in our case).

Another Google product – (yes I love them) is Google Webmaster Tools. It gives you a whole lot more specific information on what your website looks like to Google and where you appear in the index. If you can see the world through the Google Bots‘ eyes it will go a long way in helping to understand why certain tweaks to your code & copy help your rankings.

A great tip I got from a  friend over at Reload Media was to check out the SEOMoz.org website. It has a number of free SEO tools you can use along with a heap of quality information on their blog on SEO in general. You have to create an account but a basic account is free.

Rank Tracker is one of such free tools on the site, allowing you to track your ranking in various search engines for particular keywords. It also keeps a history of your searches so you can view your progress over time.

The above screenshot is the rank history for ‘Home Spa’ for the keyword phrase ‘mobile beauty Brisbane’.

The results I found using Rank Tracker:

• When I first checked in November, we were nowhere to be seen and outside the top 50.
• By January 19 we had improved and moved to #8
• This week we’ve hit #4!

What SEO tools do you use?

SEO Brisbane: If you’d like some help optimising your website and getting found on Google, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

The popular saying goes, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. But on the web, I’d argue this doesn’t hold true!

Why?  Two reasons.

1.  ‘What you know’ is very important. It matters to Google, therefore it matters! Your search engine rankings are based primarily on the content you publish on your website.  If you don’t publish what ‘you know’ about XYZ then you won’t appear in search results for XYZ.   On the web you are what you publish.

2. “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” Links are the currency of the web and the ones you want are inbound links.  The second factor that determine’s your Google rank is the quality and quantity of inbound links.  So, whilst you may ‘know everyone’ on the web, if they don’t know you, they won’t link to you.  And if you don’t receive any link love, then your search results will suffer. On the web it’s very important to be known (and linked to) by other people!

A useful, free tool for seeing who links to you is BackLinkWatch.com

Of course, ‘what you know’ and ‘who knows you’ are beautifully aligned. If you have useful, relevant content on your website (what you know), then it’s much more likely that people will link to you (who knows you)!

I wonder what other popular sayings don’t hold true on the web?

SEO Copywriting Brisbane: If you’d like to know more about writing about what you know & attracting quality inbound links, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

If you want to get to(wards) the top of Google, I’d like to share my story.

I’ll confess, 12 months ago SEO wasn’t part of our marketing strategy.  Yet in one year, we’ve climbed from unfindable to #3 for competitive search phrases like:

‘website design brisbane‘ (#3)
‘web designers brisbane‘ (#3)
‘website designers brisbane‘ (#3)
‘web design brisbane‘  (dropped to #4 today, it was #3…)

Being competitive, I’m striving for #1 in all those categories, but so is every other web design company out there. Healthy competition is good and I enjoy the challenge!

What’s the Secret?
Well, there really is no secret.  Despite what some SEOs will have you believe, there’s no magic to topping Google.  If you follow the rules, you’ll get there!

But I do want to acknowledge and thank my ‘SEO mentors‘ from whom I have learnt everything I know.  I can definitely attribute our success to our friends at Reload Media (Bluewire’s SEO partner) and also to SEO copywriter Glenn Murray who wrote the brilliant e-books SEO Secrets and SEO Copywriting. Thanks guys.

In a sentence, I’ve learnt that if you focus on producing the most interesting, relevant & useful content for your buyers, you’ll automatically be optimising your website.

But that isn’t juicy enough is it…? So, here are the:

Top 5 things I’ve done to reach #3 on Google:

1.  Commit to a keyword phrase to optimise for.
In my case, I chose Web Design Brisbane and two or three obvious combinations that are similar.  This decision was based on the high search volume for this phrase.

2. Align Web Copy, Page Title and Page Description with your keyword phrase.
My chosen keyword phrase Web Design Brisbane appears consistently in my Web Copy, Page Title and Page Description.. BUT it shouldn’t be too repetitive for a human since Google is smart enough to know what the page is about if you only mention it once in each.

Page Title & Description

3. Get Quality Backlinks
I changed the footer tags on all the websites we built to Web Design Brisbane by Bluewire Media. You could also write testimonials for suppliers or write articles for other websites and put back links on them. I do both.   You’ll also notice I use the keyword phrase as the anchor text not the company name.  This is an important habit to get into.

Anchor text on back links

4. Blog every week
I try to blog every week with useful information for our prospective buyers. This means there is fresh, keyword rich content that Google loves (and more importantly, so do people reading the blog)! If it’s a popular blog post, people will link to it.  This is known as ‘link bait‘ – content so good that other people will link to it!

Blog at least once a week

5. Tweet every blog post
I tweet every single blog post to our followers. If the blog post is interesting enough people will retweet it and more people will read it.  And if people really like it they’ll link back to the blog (which helps our Google ranking).

Tweet every blog post

What’s our #3 ranking meant for Bluewire’s business?
Well now we have on average 5-10 qualified web enquiries per week that found us through Google… And we’ve doubled our traffic to ~500 unique visitors each week.

We aren’t #1 (yet), but I’ll let you know if we make it!

SEO Brisbane : If you’d also like to see the view from the top of Google, give Bluewire Media a call on 1300 258 394.

SEO can seem pretty confusing – and it seems that many in the game like to keep it that way. But yet again Glenn Murray has landed us with a goldmine of pointers on how to write optimised copy to please both readers & the mysterious beast that is Google in his eBook SEO Copywriting.

From lists, headings, bold text & captions, to tricks to check you’re on track; here are some of my favourite tips that he shares:

Wordle is a nifty website that can help you see your web copy much the way that Google sees it. It will show you by way of a word cloud visual which words in your copy are the most frequently used. All you need to do is enter your text into the box and hit ‘Go’.

Here’s what Bluewire Media’s homepage looks like:

Web Copy For Bluewire Media's Homepage

Considering we are a web design agency, and they are among our most prominent words in the image – we can see we’re on track with our copy – letting Google know what our site is about, whilst still (and most importantly) making perfect sense to humans.

Secondly, Murray stresses that it’s important to target one keyword per page, or group of pages. As a web design agency in Brisbane, we would of course target web design – but what about everything else we offer? SEO Copywriting, Email Marketing, Domains & Hosting, Internet Strategy and Updates & Support (to name a few!) also need to be optimised.

The great thing about that is – if a page is about SEO copywriting, it makes sense that you’ll be using that phrase a whole lot anyway!

When it comes to the actual copywriting, Murray has shared a slew of practical advice using the way both humans and Google read & understand copy as a starting point.

Headings:

Humans love headings – it helps us decide what it is we’re reading about very quickly, without having to take in the whole body of text. Google recognises that & so it rates headings as one of the most important factors in deciding what a page is about. So, the moral of the story?

Optimise your headings! BUT – make sure you don’t just use your keywords out of context, headings should be totally indicative of that section. Your readers come first!

An example of this is: SEO Copywriting – Making Sense To Humans & Google
Read: Keywords – Context

Lists:

Another device that helps readers make sense of large bodies of information is the trusty list. They’re great for:

• Scanning over & getting a quick summary,
• Persuading the reader of the key points; and
• Optimising your copy – again, Google knows people like lists, so Google likes them too.

If possible, limit your bullet points, lists lose their value if they go on & on. Also, the closer your keywords are to the bullet point, the better.

Bold:

People use bold words as hooks. And yet again, Google has taken its cue from the way a human visitor acts – bold words are important to us so bold words are important to Google. Glenn Murray points out though – what is important to the customer might be different to what’s important to a reader looking for benefits. So it’s important to strike a balance.

Links:

When linking to other pages, Google assumes that the first two words of the link are really important & indicate what the page you’re linking to will be about. It will assume that what you’re linking to is relevant to the content you’re covering too.

The thing is, if you really want your audience to follow the link (& find it helpful & in turn, find your page helpful) then engagement should come first. A ‘read how’ start to a link might be better than keywords in the long run.

Captions:

Used to describe images, captions are mostly redundant to the human eye. BUT – Google can’t understand imagery, so captions are a very important way for Google to figure out what you’re on about. With that in mind, ALWAYS start captions with keywords.

Variants:

Google is smart enough to know that if your page is about SEO copywriting, your page will also use stems or variants of that phrase. It will pick up on lots of different combinations so you can mix your keyword phrases up as much as you can creatively manage whilst still making sense. You can also break your phrase up with grammar.

For example: Need help understanding SEO? Copywriting tips from leaders in the field….

That said, keep the words in the phrase right next to each other where possible, they’re much more effective that way.

Not one to miss anything important, Glenn Murray has included length guidelines for effective SEO copywriting. He suggests:

• 100-150 words for a homepage – it’s important for most valuable information to be “above the fold” (in view without needing to scroll down),
• 250-500 words for pages lower in the site hierarchy – this might include product or service pages or “about us” pages; and
• 300-1000 words for blog posts

And lastly, true to being a copywriter – Murray reminds his readers that it’s all about the benefits to the reader. So, to get people to read your site you need an effective headline and description for your Google listing.

Your description meta tag isn’t used for ranking – so think of it as ad copy and don’t bother trying to optimise. But your heading? It’s of utmost importance.

The four criteria for a successful headline:

1. Spark personal interest,
2. Offer a quick, easy way,
3. Share some news; and
4. Incite curiosity

SEO Copywriting

You can also buy it online.

SEO Copywriting Brisbane: If you’d like Bluewire Media to help you climb the Google ladder get in touch on 1300 258 394.

Reaching the top of Google (and staying there) is akin to playing a game with ever changing goal posts. There are so many elements that contribute to where your website is placed and for how long.

And while it’s granted that Google moves in mysterious ways, and you will never be able to control every single variable, there are nevertheless loads of techniques you can use to keep kicking goals when the Googlers make it tricky for you.

One simple and effective way is to make sure what actually comes up in the Google listing is fully optimised, makes sense, and tells the viewer “this is what you are looking for” – by addressing exactly what it is that your website delivers.

Your Google heading can be up to around 66 characters & that includes spaces, so you don’t have long to grab the viewer. With that in mind, it’s important to remember the following:

• The viewer is looking for something. Does your headline assure them that you have what they need?
• If you do in fact offer what they want, is it simple for them to attain it? What means have you offered them to make life easier? Is there a call to action?
• Is there anything new, interesting or out of the ordinary? Can you manage to stand out from the crowd?
• Have you included your company name & made sure that you have a different heading for every single page on your site?

So: can you manage that in 66 characters? With clever copy, the answer should be ‘yes’.

Now that we have a succinct and attractive headline, we need to ensure the description is up to scratch. Think of the description like the copy of an advertisement. You have roughly 155 characters including spaces to offer a compelling glimpse into what lies beneath the click of the mouse. Think of the description like a taste test. And make absolutely sure that you use your keyword/s at least once toward the beginning.

That said, keyword stuffing is frowned upon in the Googlesphere. And thank goodness! Who wants to read the same phrase same phrase same phrase same phrase same phrase same phrase over and over again? Nobody!

Finally, choose a URL that is clear and indicates where the page lies within the site’s structure. For example: http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/web-design-brisbane.html

And next time you Google something, take note of just how much the heading and description affects whether that’s the site you choose to peruse.

Search Engine Optimisation: Call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394 to find out more about how SEO can benefit your company.

I’ve just finished reading SEO Secrets by Glenn Murray. As a copywriter, Glenn manages to make even the clunkiest aspects of SEO accessible to the layperson.

What was most striking in reading the book was that much of optimising your blog or website is naturally intuitive. Most SEO is more related to time and effort than mathematical trickery.

With that in mind, I’d like to share a particularly helpful (& simple) technique that I learnt from Glenn’s book – link baiting.

So, imagine we are going fishing. We need bait. I mean it’s obvious right? Why would the fish (or the people you want to read your site) bother coming near you if they weren’t going to get a tasty little treat out of it?

With this in mind we need to create content that people want to read. There’s no point trying to be everything to everyone – just like bait, you need to consider what fish you are hoping to catch, and what they like to eat.

To cut the fishing metaphor for a moment: people appreciate good content and will probably link to you if you deliver that. Case in point: Glenn Murray is the number 1 copywriter on Google. He writes great content and now I’m linking to it. And so are thousands of others. Hence the rank.

Anyway, once you’ve got good bait you need to cast the line where the fish are – otherwise it’s just great content floating in the vast expanse of ocean that is the Internet.

Enter social media – a fishing rod for the digital age. Let your network of friends & followers know there is some bait getting about – and watch as they break it down into pieces, redistribute it into their own blogs and backlink to yours in thanks of your food for thought.

Thanks Glenn.

Read a free sample chapter of SEO Secrets on Creating Great Content.

You can also buy the SEO Secrets e-book online.

SEO Brisbane: If you are interested in Bluewire Media implementing these strategies for you, feel free to get in touch on 1300 258 394.

• Conversation UX design — Zeus Jones
• Essential tips for designing an effective homepage — Six Revisions
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) vs PPC (Pay Per Click) — Digital Ministry
• Introducing Typedia — The online typography encyclopedia
• Survey reveals who is running the social media show — Jeff Bullas
• You auto complete me — UI Trends
• One-hit wonders to cash in on YouTube — YouTube
• 10 excellent feedback tools for web designers — Six Revisions

 
And just for fun…

• Funniest joke of the 2009 Fringe revealed — Dave: the home of witty banter

Bluewire Media interviews search engine optimisation, SEO expert Llew Jury, of Reload Media.

In this interview, Llew addresses the following questions:

• What’s the best thing about SEO?
• What led you to become an expert in the field of SEO?
• What are Top 3 things you need to know to be successful in SEO?
• What’s the best way to get started?
• How long does it take to become proficient in SEO?
• Do your methods and advice work for anyone?
• How much experience does a person need?
• Can you tell us how your advice has worked for some of your clients?
• If you could give away one SEO secret what would it be?
• What are some common problems that people experience with SEO?
• SEO sounds too good to be true.  What’s the catch?
• What can people do to stay on top of the search engine rankings?
• Where can people find out more information on SEO?
• How can people contact you?

SEO Brisbane:  To go on an SEO (search engine optimisation) program that guarantees “Top 10″  rankings, contact Bluewire Media on (07) 3846 7687.  Bluewire Media is an official partner of Reload Media.