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Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics

November 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is an extension of the simple SEO article I posted last week and really you should do all of that work before you start this. Once again this is very simple for the novice to do, you do not need any progrmaming skills and you certainly do not ned to pay anyone to do it for you. Remember SEO is a scam isn’t it!? Well no it isn’t if you follow these really simple rules – If you do you will find your site increases its visibility.

Tell Google about your site

  • Google is pretty good at picking up news sites and you will find that your site will be listed pretty much whetever you do, but in order to give your site a helping hand go to Google .co.uk and set up a Google account if you havn’t already got one. Its really simple to do and will give you a whole host of tools that you will need to get your site notices.
  • When you have registed your account go to Webmaster Tools and click ‘Add Site’ – specify your site’s URL and you will see that the site is added to the list below.
  • Then Verify your site – this is Google way of verifying that you actually own the sit ethat you have added to this account. Google gives you four ways to verify. I always use ‘Uplaod an HTML file to your server – you simply download a small file to your FTP (File Transfer Protocol – If you haven’t got one use WinSCP), program and transfer it over to your root folder – Click ‘Verify’ and Google will activate the website in Webmaster Tools.
  • It will then take about two weeks for Google to index your site and to start capturing data.

Install Google Analytics

  • Go to you Google account and sign up for Analytics – this is a full program of analytical software which will give you all sorts of information about your website including visitor number, content viewed and tons of other tools that will give you a massive insight in to how your site looks and performs on the web.
  • It is fairly easy to use the basics – Add the URL of your site and then put the tracking code just before the body tag at the bottom of your site. Don’t put it in the header or near the top, you want people counted who have looked at all your page not just the ones who got to the top then clicked off. You will need access to the source code of your site to do this – but make sure that this tracking code is ON EVERY PAGE!

more later :O)

Filed Under: Google Basics

SEO is a Scam

November 13, 2010 By 2 Comments

I go to Total Fitness in Altrincham every couple of days for a swim, in an attempt to keep fit. There were a couple of guys in the changing room chatting about business, one of them was an electrical retailer - “You wanna get that SEO for your business mate”, one said to the other, “Nah - I’ve heard its all a scam” , said the second guy. “No really I’ve got a mate that does in for companies” and there ended the brief conversation. So what lead the second guy in to thinking that SEO is a scam?

Well to me its pretty obvious – I can’t tell you how many emails I get every day telling me this or that company has done ‘thorough‘ research in to my company and that my website is not on the front page of Google for the most searched for terms. I have given up replying and telling them that they know absolutely nothing about my company, now I just delete them. 90% are sent by lazy idle idiots who are trying to drum up business by sending out ridculous faux scary emails like this and what’s the result? Its just given SEO a bad name. Sure there are bound to be scam companies out there, ripping people off by charging them the earth for not delivering but there are also some cracking companies doing a great job.

My advice to anyone looking in to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation),  is to get the basics right yourself, do some research in to the most common keywords for your business, if you are using Google Adwords then there is a nifty keyword tool that comes free with the package and its dead easy to use. Look at say the top 5 keywords and make sure that your site is peppered with them:

Simple on page SEO 

  • Site Title and Page Titles – Use Keywords and make sure every page is unique – Google hates duplication
  • Site and Page URl’s – Use Keywords in the URL’s, no one wants to see coded URL’s and Google hates them.
  • Site and Page Descriptions – Make them readable and pepper them with Keywords make them unique.
  • Bolded H1 tags in the body of the page, even going down to H2 and H3 (header tags) Google loves them.
  • Image names and Alt tags – use Keywords as the names of images and USE the Alt tag.
  • Hyperlinks between pages THROUGH the keywords.
  • On page copy – USE Keywords.

These really simple steps will ensure that your website increases it Google rank – don’t pay people to do this, do it youself and you will notice your site rising in Google for the Keywords you have used. When you have gone as far as you can with this and need more THEN and only then consider getting external help with link building, article writing, Social Bookmarking, Hubpages, Squidoo and other forms of external SEO.

There is an article on Hubpages here for further reading:  http://hubpages.com/hub/On-Page-Search-Engine-Opimization-SEO

Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: On Page SEO
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