Script

Welcome

We are going to have a look at the Google Caffeine update and see what effect it has on our current listings and to search results.

Google suggests that it is the next generation in architecture for Google’s search and that it aims to improve index speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The progress is all back end and you won’t see the user interface change. They also said that users might not notice a difference in the search engine as the new system will be tested on a single data center and then rolled out slowly over a period of time.

You can test the new search engine at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/.

But we are going to test the search engine with another comparison search engine http://www.comparecaffeine.com/

-Screen Shots-

Comparing the 2 search indexes and testing for some real time searches, so lets start at home and query ‘caffeine’ so if it has improved real time searches we should see some results that are closely related to the Google update ‘caffeine’.

Compare ‘Lockerbie bomber released’ you tube videos not there…

Further examples…

-screen shot ends-

Matt Cutts said that the new indexing architecture will be flexible, powerful and furthermore robust. This sort information doesn’t help much for an SEO as it doesn’t detail what we thought was a step towards a more semantic and real time search and doesn’t give many clues on how it will effect our and our clients businesses.

We have attached some related videos from Web Pro News on the Creare communications blog, which sees Matt Cutts (Google Engineer) questioned about the caffeine update.

Just one last thing worth watching if your an SEO / Webmaster geek, a website called searchenginerapbattle.com which sees what was the major 3 search engines go head to head in a rap battle type showdown.

Thanks for watching.

Resources:

http://www2.sandbox.google.com

http://www.comparecaffeine.com/

Search Engine Rap Battle

http://www.searchenginerapbattle.com/

The Creare Group: Helping you improve your SEO by way of new social media techniques

SEO is an organic process that consistently continues to change and evolve; one of the reasons it is such an interesting industry to be involved in.

However, this constant development can also make it hard to keep up and many struggle to realise when the times are changing and a new trend is in town.

This problem is particularly relevant to social media marketing – it’s tough to know which sites are a flash in the pan, and which offer a long term potential for increased traffic and brand building.

At Creare we realise that technology can move at an intimidating rate for many web users, and we channel our efforts into finding the next big thing so you don’t have to.

By now most people are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, sites that are not only used by individuals to network and stay in touch with friends, but by businesses to solidify their online presence – feel free to follow us by clicking on the link! These tools are a must for successful SEO and online marketing, and by adding the right people with the right interests, you can see your brand expand before your eyes.

Social bookmarking is another must – by bookmarking your websites, you draw the attention of a wide group of users to a particular site or article. These have both long and short term implications for any SEO campaign, and once again, allow you to increase your reach on the net.

Definitely something worth considering for anyone hoping to boost their listings.

However, behind the scenes, there are a crop of new sites that might be worth a small investment of time and effort. These include new Google Reader applications, Virb, and FacebookLite – programmes which aim to make online networking simpler and more effective, even for the most inexperienced of web users.

So to boost your SEO campaigns further remember that research is key. You can try out some of the sites we’ve found, or discover some of your own – there are plenty out there – just make sure you don’t become stuck in a social media rut as it’s a sure-fire way to minimise your online impact.

Script

Jenny - Hi, and welcome to the second instalment of our Press Release Video blog. Last week we informed you how to write a successful press release, and today we will discuss how to make your written work SEO friendly.

Danii – So one of the most important things to remember when devising your press release for SEO purposes, is to keep your key words in mind.
These should be present in – The Title, Sub headline and main body.

Sarah – Your key words should be incorporated in a variety of ways including the relevant tags. To do this you need to make sure your press release sites allow links and tags of this sort, as it is essential your key words are apparent.

Jenny – Remembering to incorporate your key words when writing your Press Release makes it so much easier when it comes to distribution. You do not have to edit your work upon distribution.

Danii – Distributing your press release will be covered in the next, and final video on press releases. However it is important for SEO purposes to know where to distribute them to target your consumers.

Sarah – When distributing your press release, remember to always use your keywords to attract your target audience. This will help your listings as well as your press release being found in the search engines.

Jenny – Thanks for listening to our second instalment of how to make the most of your Press Release, we look forward to seeing you next week.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has been around ever since people started to use the Internet to make money. It has changed a lot over the years, from keyword stuffing and filling your page with h1s to trick the search engines to link farms (remember them?) and blog commenting – these quick fixes have come and gone. The search engines are smart, they know when they’re being fooled, and they update their algorithms accordingly.

So, how can we ensure our SEO stands the test of time? Well, there is one eternal truth to SEO.

Search Engines offer a service for their USERS

What does this mean? It means that at the end of the day Google, Yahoo, Bing etc want to put the best website at the top for all search queries. They create complex algorithms to achieve this, and are constantly updating the processes to ensure their users are well satisfied.

Google have even given us a preview of their latest update “Caffeine”, not easily testable here in the UK, but it does give us an idea about the way things are going.

We can see that Google want to bring more content rich sites to the forefront – sites that are useful to their users. So that’s what you need to be producing – websites that are useful and interesting. We can see that Google will be placing more emphasis on social media and micro-blogging platforms, such as Twitter, so connections are seen as important too.

How will all this pan out in the years to come? I’m not really sure because I don’t have a crystal ball… But, I do think its important to think of your customers or potential customers first, then the search engines second, after all it’s pretty obvious that the search engines take things like bounce rate, time on site and visitor numbers into consideration when creating their indexes.

So, take time to check your analytics. How can you reduce your bounce rate? Test, test, test – there is no hard and fast rule, but you can re-write your copy, change the images on your site, change the headings and title tags, anything that will make a difference can be tested and improved upon. To improve the time on site you could put interactive tools such as videos or audio that your visitors can watch or listen to, though paradoxically this can increase your bounce rate, so keep on testing until you get the balance right. Change the content on your site, make sure it’s well written but easy to read, and has a clear call to action to increase conversion.

Make your site easy for the search engine spiders to crawl by creating well-structured webpages that interlink to each other. Make sure all your pages pass W3C validations.

Off-site optimisation techniques such as link building are still important, I can’t see the search engines ever abandoning this, but make sure you are clever about your campaign. One ‘good’ link is always going to be more valuable than 100 ‘bad’ links. Obtaining the ‘good’ links is difficult and time consuming, but can be done. Write press releases, and distribute articles to online article sites to acquire relevant links. Submit your sites to social bookmarking sites to increase visitor numbers, but try to find a niche SB site to reduce the likelihood of your bounce rate increasing.

Check your site for duplicate content. You can use a variety of online tools to do this. If someone else has copied your site, or you’ve inadvertently copied content (which can happen – especially if more than one person is responsible for the site) make sure you rewrite it so that your site no longer displays the same content as other sites. Regularly check your content, and update it when it has been around for a while – nobody likes stale content – this should minimise your risk of being copied, and satisfy your visitors.

And finally, help the search engines out by providing a sitemap of your site. This is like a contents page or index in a book, it gives a list of everything in your site and the page where certain things are placed. It just makes the job of the search engine spiders easier, and they will reward you for it.

Preparation Is Key To Attracting Target Audiences Through Video Blogging

Internet users are gradually becoming lazier with reading text within a web design. With options of video, radio and text readers to convey ideas, people need to be given fresh and new content in a way that gets through to them.

However, many blogs online do not have informative content but rather are made because of the novelty of appearing online. It is important that what you tell your viewers is;

• Factual
• Informative
• Structured
  

Written text online, especially in web design, seems to have more substance and more volume than some video blogs that appear on places such as You Tube. This is because people feel their writing skills will be judged and those that have taken to read their work are reading it because they care about the subject.

However, this is nonsense and many people watch video blogs to get information quicker and trust those brave enough to appear on camera to deliver content that is substantial.

So how can you plan your video blog?

Obviously human nature takes over as soon as the red recording light appears and you realise that you are being filmed. Nerves set and often your mind goes blank. Preparation is the key; so make sure you have written a well-structured script that can be adapted under pressure.

Make sure you research when writing your script, not only for factual content but for SEO purposes. If you are an expert in your field read your script to someone who is a novice. It can be easy to get carried away in technical jargon and this will limit your audience and those that know what you are talking about may bypass your Video Blog anyway.

Structuring the content of your blog is vital to make it flow. If you make points in the first instance, elaborate on them straight afterwards. Your viewers will lose interest if you are flitting from one point to the next then back to the beginning, they want continuity and this will also help you remember your points if they are in chronological order.

By planning and structuring your written text before your speech you will almost certainly attract more people back to your blog, improving your SEO, as you will automatically appear professional and knowledgeable; something we all strive to be.