Infinite Path » SEO

How To Gain Confidence From Search Engines with Images

Infinite Path — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:33:42 +0000

Last month, an interview with Peter Linsley, a Google employee, reminded us at Infinite Path about the importance of keeping SEO best practice in mind when it comes to images, particularly alt text, on a webpage.

The interview is really interesting but goes into a lot of detail about this element of SEO. So, we’ve managed to whittle down the basics to provide you with the need-to-know facts about this particular subject:

Why you need to focus upon optimising your images for search

The answer to this is very simple. When we focus upon link building as part of an SEO campaign, it’s done primarily with the intention of building importance. In effect, a link into a particular site represents, in the eyes of the search engine at least, a vote for that site.

Each link sends a clear signal to the search engines that the content on the page being linked to provides useful information for the user. This in turn increases the chances of that website ranking highly for a particular keyword phrase.

The same can be said with regards to content on a particular page. Keyword density, choice of anchor text, and several other content features combine to send a search engine a signal related to relevancy. If the content appears to be mashed together in an irrelevant manner, it is unlikely to be deemed worthy of ranking highly for a particular phrase.

With images, however, importance is not as easy to gage (since, as a general rule, people don’t link to images in the same way they link to content). The search engines therefore need to build confidence in the image through different means. Relevancy is still an important factor to consider in this respect and it is for this reason that images must be optimised for search.

Using alt text

To send search engines the correct signals and attempt to build this confidence, it’s important to use the alt text attribute effectively. This text can be entered into the image source tag and should be used to describe what is in the image. This will send an initial signal to the search engine concerning the content of the image and will start to build confidence that it is related to a specific topic of interest.

Take care to repeat the content from the alt text in other areas of the webpage, preferably in close proximity to the image. For example, provide a relevant title for the image which contains the same keywords as the alt text. This will send a signal to the search engine that the image is about a specific topic and, even better, a topic which is obviously relevant to the wider context of the webpage as a whole.

Why alt text is important from a non-SEO point of view

As with most elements of SEO, the alt text is also important from the point of view of the user. The general rule with any element of SEO is to use common sense and think about matters from the point of view of a website visitor. If any changes you make are initiated to make life easier for the user, the chances are that your site will be improved from an SEO point of view at the same time.

For instance, if you write concise, focused content which constantly reminds the reader of the main theme of the text by using careful keywords, users and search engines will benefit.

With images, the same rule applies. For instance, there are times when an image will take some time to load, leaving the alt text visible. If the alt text is stuffed with keywords or filled with unrelated content, the user will take no value from the experience. Likewise, the search engines will find no use for it. From the user’s point of view, it’s far better to read a concise, accurate description of the image.

Alt text is also useful for individuals using a screen reader or those using a text-only browser.

Rules of image optimisation

Try to keep the content of the alt text concise and to the point. There are no official hard and fast rules concerning length but if you keep it short, the search engines will be more likely to understand the importance of these words and tie them together with other mentions elsewhere on the page
Keep it relevant to the content
Think about the keywords you want to rank for and use these if possible

Conversion Rate Optimisation

Infinite Path — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:27:27 +0000

There is an element of online that many ignore. Or, if not ignore, don’t pay enough attention to. This element is Conversion Rate Optimisation. The aim of SEO is to drive traffic to a website, but once the traffic is there, then what? Many ignore the crucial requirement of converting traffic. To some, traffic is everything – they think it’s all a numbers game. When you get eyeballs on your site you want to convert that traffic into sales, or whatever it is that your site is designed for. To an extent it is a numbers game. But imagine if you could get more sales and conversions from a lot less traffic. You could save a lot of money on the techniques employed to drive the traffic there in the first place.

On this basis, it is crucial that your site is geared up correctly to encourage action from the viewers. The last thing you want is to get lots of traffic to your site, only for the people visiting to bounce straight off the site because they don’t like the look of it, or they can’t figure out how to use the site. Usability comes into this a lot too. If your site is hard to navigate, and people can’t find what they’re looking for they will often go elsewhere.

If you are selling on your site, it makes no sense to have poorly performing products on your front page. If you are trying to direct people to the front page of your site then you are best off having your top sellers on there waiting for them as soon as they hit the site. Calls to action on the site must be very prominent also. It must be easy for your users to do what they came to your site for. Because the internet offers so many options, there is no need for people to waste their time going through a site trying to find something when they could go elsewhere and find it quicker. You must connect with your target user immediately and give them what they want before they know they want it.

Remember that your website is for the user, not for you. Just because you know where everything is – and how easy it is get the information/buy the product – does not mean everyone else will think the same.

You could spend thousands of pounds on SEO and other techniques to get traffic to your site, but if you haven’t put enough time and thought into conversion rate optimisation then you may find that your traffic generation efforts are entirely wasted.

Top Ten Reasons to Hire an Online Agency

Infinite Path — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:57:40 +0000

They really can help you to increase your sales: Online marketing experts will be able to do thorough research into what keywords your site should be ranking for when it is crawled by the search engines. Approximately half of all web searches performed each day are unique, meaning that professionals trained in SEO will be able to ensure that your site shows up for generic, short-tail keyword phrases as well as for specific, long-tail phrases. With traffic arriving at your site from both these kinds of searches, you will be able to attract both shoppers (who often use short-tail keyword phrases) and buyers, who are more likely to search for specific terms.
They can help you reduce the risky side of SEO: Any SEO campaign involves risks but some are more dangerous than others. Professionals will be able to help you minimise the risks involved in your SEO campaign and will make sure you don’t become involved in any black hat techniques (SEO tactics opposed to best practice), which could cause you more harm than good.
They can spend time you don’t have: Any white hat (legitimate) SEO campaign takes time before it has an effect. In many cases, site owners and those involved in the daily running of a business do not have time to sit around and see if a particular method has an impact or not. An online marketing company can remove this hassle and let you focus on your own company’s needs.
They can remove the technical confusion: No matter how much you love your service or product, web sites can be confusing. The problem with websites is that you can try to change something and end up causing damage across your site in the process. Online marketing companies will be able to explain things to you in simple terms.
They will know what techniques to use: Individuals who choose to carry out SEO campaigns on their own often think that they need to try every single technique that they can find described on the web. Experts will know which techniques to use and which to ignore, since some sites will need to target different areas to others.
They will be up-to-date with search engine preferences: Online marketing companies keep up-to-date with news and gossip in the industry as part of their job. Technology moves very quickly and new SEO techniques are being introduced all the time to suit the search engine’s ever-changing preferences. If you try to take control of your own SEO campaign, you may end up using methods that lost their relevance a year or two ago.
They can track progress: You can spend a lot of time doing SEO yourself but, apart from obvious indications such as increased sales, there are not many free indicators to tell you how successful your attempts are. SEO experts will have tools at their fingertips which can monitor all aspects of an SEO campaign and they will be able to keep you fully informed of their progress at all times.
They have contacts: Online marketing professionals usually have many contacts, some of whom may specialise in working with customers who specialise in the same area as you. They will be able to get inside tips and advice about how best to serve your needs.
They know the differences between the search engines: Different search engines have different preferences and what may suit Google may not suit Yahoo! in the slightest. It is worth having at least one feature on each of your pages which suits all the major search engines but it is difficult to understand how to do this unless you know the differences between the major search engines. This is one area where online marketing professionals can really help you.
They can help you with your wider online strategy: They can identify problems with your website and suggest design or development features which may provide additional benefits.

Six Reasons why Flash should be Avoided at all Costs

Infinite Path — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:31:36 +0000

If you’re designing and running your own website, you will probably have heard people advising you to avoid flash at all costs. This is all well and good but do you really know the reasons why it should be avoided? The truth is that there are far more than six good reasons to avoid using it but the main ones are as follows:

1. If you have a Flash intro on your site, every single visitor will be annoyed. This may be a generalisation but, on the whole, nobody is interested in Flash intros, particularly if they have to view them each and every time they visit your site. With SEO, you want to encourage revisits as much as new visits and Flash intros are likely to contribute to a decreasing revisit rate.

2. Flash files come with timing issues. They take ages (in relative web terms) to load and in this day and age of speed and impatience when it comes to websites, people may click away instead of waiting. People want to find good information on the web but, more importantly, they don’t want to waste time looking for it.

3. Human beings are not the only ones who get annoyed by Flash. Websites that only use Flash are giving the search engines a really hard time. The search engines find it difficult indexing and searching through these websites and this makes the whole process of SEO extremely difficult.

4. Websites which just use Flash may not have unique URLs for each page. This causes problems with regards to indexing individual pages in the search engines, bookmarking, and inbound linking. A good website should have an abundance of internal linking but this will not be possible for Flash websites. Furthermore, if you’re trying to get back-links from other websites, you will only be getting links to your homepage since there are no deeper links to be found. This is tantamount to SEO suicide.

5. These websites have basic issues with usability. Simple actions performed by visitors commonly are impossible on certain sites using Flash. These actions include highlighting text in order to copy and paste it somewhere else or trying to alter the font of the text.

6. Access is a major problem with Flash. Whilst Flash will be installed on most browsers, you cannot guarantee that your visitor will have the latest version installed. Very few people will bother updating their version just to access the content on your website.

A Brief Introduction to Meta Tags

Infinite Path — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:59:45 +0000

Regarded by some as the be all and end all of SEO, meta tags are just one component of a successful online marketing campaign. Most of the time, when people mention meta tags, they are talking about meta description or meta keyword tags, or both. The importance of optimizing your meta tags is debatable (mainly because search engines are aware of how open to manipulation they can be so do not place too much emphasis upon them) but it certainly isn’t worth ignoring them. Having said this, don’t waste too much of your time dwelling over the exact wording of your meta description tag. With regards to your meta keywords tags, pick a couple of keywords which apply to each page. Spend a few minutes doing this before moving on to the description tag.

The reason why the keyword tag should not take long is that it should come as second nature to you. You should know what each of your pages is discussing and should be able to think of relevant variations quickly. This tag is the place to think about popular misspellings of your company name, product, or service. Include a few likely misspellings on each page. If there are any words that sound almost exactly like one of your keywords, think about including them as well. With regards to rankings, doing this is not likely to impact upon search engine rankings in isolation, so make sure you also pay close attention to the words you include in your on-page content.

Some search engines use the content provided in your meta description tag to show a brief description of your site under the title of your website when search results are displayed. This is not always the case and it is common for the search engines to extract a useful excerpt from the actual content on your page instead. However, it is worth spending some time thinking about this tag just in case. Unlike your keyword tag, this tag should not read as if it has been written by a robot for the search engines. It should appeal to real human visitors and should be interesting yet accurate enough to encourage them to click on the link to your site. You should include one or several of your keywords in this tag but not to the extent that it appears unnatural.

Remember that paying close attention to your meta tags will only be worthwhile if you work extremely hard on the other areas of SEO, including link campaigns and content creation. If you neglect these aspects in favour of meta tag optimization, you will be doing yourself no favours at all.

Content for Search Marketing

Infinite Path — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:40:25 +0000

The number one rule to remember with regards to content is that it should be written with the website visitor in mind. Content is written by humans for humans and nobody wants to visit a website and read text which sounds like it has been created by a robot. Having said this, when it comes to SEO, you want to tailor your content so that it keeps the search engines happy. Striking the right balance between pleasing visitors to your website and the search engines is difficult but getting it right is essential for successful search marketing.

It is worth remembering that when search engines crawl a web page, they are looking for content which has been created in a natural style through organic means. As a result, if you create your content for humans using natural techniques, it is likely that the search engines will be satisfied. However, ignoring the preferences of search engines with regards to content altogether really isn’t advisable. At Infinite Path, we create optimized content for search marketing which appeals to humans and to search engines, bearing in mind the following features which keep the search engines happy:

Although content can refer to features on your website including pictures, videos, and sound clips, the content that search engines love the most is written text. These other features will not help you in the quest to gain higher rankings in search results for particular keywords. The search engines want you to include content that they can actually read. Luckily, this preference of the search engines fits nicely with most people’s preferences. Think how annoying it is when you’re trying to track down some important information only to be bombarded by unwanted and intensely irritating sound clips and unnecessary pictures that hinder your task of tracking down key data in the form of text.
Search engines tend not to stick exclusively to the old cliche loved by humans: “it’s about quality, not quantity”. The search engines love high-quality content and have particularly hateful feelings towards content which has been produced solely for the purposes of SEO. Pages filled with sentences which barely make sense because they are stuffed with keywords and little else really repel the search engines. It therefore seems obvious that quality is important, as it is to humans. However, search engines also get excited by quantity. They love finding sites with thousands of pages, each stacked full of useful content.
Search engines, like humans, reward originality. Duplicate content is a big turn-off for search engines and for humans as well. Nobody will bother visiting (and, crucially, re-visiting) a website which repeats the words of other people without offering a unique and interesting slant. What they really want to see is authoritative comments and viewpoints and this applies equally to search engines. The golden rule remains that you shouldn’t bother writing something if you have nothing new to say.

Cohesion is also a major bonus in the eyes of the search engines. An article built around a single theme, such as content for search marketing, is particularly pleasing for them. Search engines find very few things more frustrating than a web page which has obviously included several keywords but the surrounding text has nothing to do with the theme of these words. If you want to include keywords in a web page, make sure they are there for a reason other than boosting your rankings in search engines.

Link Building: the Facts

Infinite Path — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:17:41 +0000

Link building is a technique used in search engine optimisation. In order for websites to rank highly in search engines and thus attract more visitors and potentially conduct more business, the process of link building is essential. As the name suggests, link building simply involves creating new links that lead to your website. Google uses link popularity to determine how relevant a given website is to a specific search.

Create unique and attractive content

Before starting the actual process of link building, you should ensure that you have something on your website worth linking back to. Offering a unique spin on a popular subject in an informative blog, for instance, will make others more likely to link back to you.

Link bait, such as unusual and informative videos, will also work well. If you have something worth linking to on each page of your website, you will be able to get more deep links (links to the inner pages of your site).

Free Link Building

Ideally, link building should be a natural, and free, process. You may find the following techniques useful:

Participate in forums: Make yourself an important voice in relevant forums. This will allow you to keep up-to-date with current news in your industry and, if you offer solutions to problems which individuals have, they may start to view your website as a site of authority. Do not bombard forums with posts that just include a link to your website for the sake of it. Make sure that your posts are informative and conversational in tone.

Create a blog: Start a blog about your product or service and include links back to your website. Again, make sure that the information is relevant and interesting and looks natural, rather than just a means to an end for furthering the aims of your website.

Create testimonials for other websites: Find a relevant website that you really like and write a testimonial for it. You could include a link back to your site in the feedback or in a by-line at the end of your testimonial. The owner of this website will also be more likely to include links back to your website in the future.

Write content for other sites: You could offer to write content for other related sites (or provide them with some other service) in exchange for links. For instance, you may write a regular blog for a well-respected and related website, as long as the owner will allow you to include two links back to your own website.

Search for respected free link sources: These may include libraries, for example.

Trading links: Opinion is divided over how useful this is but it may be worth considering. Try to trade links with related websites only.

Paying for Links

Sometimes, it may be necessary to pay for links.

Renting/Buying links: Once again, ensure that the website you are renting/buying from is relevant. Make sure you shop around before deciding upon a website. It is also important to be picky when choosing a site. One which already has dozens of links may be worth avoiding since any link back to your website will be less valuable.

Permanent links versus temporary links: Whilst renting can be useful, buying permanent links is far more valuable. Temporary links can cause problems if they reappear after being taken off the website for a short period of time. Search engines view this negatively and may penalise you.

Keywords

Ideally, the links pointing back to your website should contain the keywords important to your site. However, it is also important to mix up your anchor text in order to make the links look more natural. If a website owner refuses to use your preferred keywords in the links, consider the value of the potential link. It may still be worth going ahead with the link regardless of the anchor text being used.

General Tips

Ensure that the websites you deal with are high-quality: Make sure that they receive a lot of traffic and do not have links to poor-quality websites.

Find out the location of your link: Ideally, links should be prominent and not surrounded by dozens of other links to different sites.

Top 5 Tips for Picking a Domain Name

Infinite Path — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:25:58 +0000

Prior to starting your SEO campaign, you will obviously need to construct your website. After you have found the best hosting company for your needs, you will need to pick a domain name. Too many people think that this is not an important process and spend far too little time thinking about the best domain name to pick. The truth is that picking a good domain name requires some thought and time. The good news is that if you create a memorable domain name, you will be giving your SEO campaign the best chance of success.

Length: Good domain names should be short. There are obviously exceptions to this rule of length but never make your domain name too long.
Originality: Quirky or unusual domain names are often the most memorable, as are ones which play on words in some way. Boring domain names, particularly lengthy ones, are easily forgotten and should be avoided at all costs.
Version: It is a good idea to get the .com version. This is the version which people automatically remember, so try whatever you can to get this one.
Keywords: It goes without saying that it is a good idea to include keywords in your domain name. You shouldn’t need to do too much research to figure out which keyword(s) should be included in the name but don’t rush in without giving it a little bit of thought.
Separation: Some people get confused when thinking about separating the keywords in their domain name with dashes, for example. As a general rule, it is a good idea. Placing a dash between the words means that Google can recognise them as different words. Don’t worry if you have already purchased a domain name without any dashes because the benefit of inserting dashes is not extreme enough to ruin all your SEO efforts. The only downside to having one or more dashes separating words in your domain name is that it can become irritating when you tell someone your URL over and over again. It is also easier to remember names without dashes, so weigh up the pros and cons of this before making a final decision.