NetSecrets Blog : Web Design and SEO

UK Business Directory

Like many other people I am always on the look out for decent link building opportunities. I've just come across UK Business Directory because it was ranked #4 in Google UK for one of my key phrases. Having looked more closely I found that the page I could submit to was a PR4 and that in return all I had to do was add a reciprocal link on a page with a PR greater than 1. So here it is!

Business Directory - Directory of UK companies and businesses, arranged by category.

Don't know if it will bring many visitors but an inbound PR4 should be handy.

Google Preferences On Domain Types

I just noticed an important change in Google's pronouncements on domain name types. I was working in Google Sitemaps and looked at the "Settings" section for one of my .co.uk domains.

Now, there has been the opportunity for some time to set a "geographical target" for a domain in this section which works a bit like the option in Adwords to limit the ads to a specified location or a n-mile radius of a location but I don't often make use of this in sitemaps because, quite honestly, I don't think it's very accurate. Although I am based in the middle of Herefordshire Google sees me as being in Telford because that's where my ISP's point of presence is. But I digress ...

For this domain I spotted the message "Your site's domain is currently associated with the target: United Kingdom" which surprised me as it's a business that primarily sells in UK but is also relevant to overseas prospects. So I clicked on a link which I thought would allow me to remove this preference. I wasn't able to and instead found the following statement:

"If your site targets users in a particular location, you can provide us with information that will help determine how your site appears in our country-specific search results, and also improve our search results for geographic queries. You can only use this feature for sites with a neutral top-level domain, such as .com or .org. Country-specific domains, such as .ie or .fr, are already associated with a country or region.

 

Your site's domain is currently associated with the target: United Kingdom"

 

This tells me 2 interesting things. Firstly if you want to achieve any visibility outside of the UK you have to get a .com, .org, or .net domain. Secondly if you want to sell in the UK you might be better using a .co.uk domain or at least setting a preference in Google Sitemaps for the UK market.

 

So what to do if you want to achieve both? Certainly you can't just have the same website with two domains. That will invoke "duplicate content" issues and at best make one of the two sites ineffective. You need to be cleverer than that, probably with having two distinctly separate sites as the optimal solution.

 

If you have one type of the domain and could do with the other contact our Support Team, Aimee, Micki or Sandy, on 01386 792972 to check what's available or just go to our domain name checker.

 

Equally if you'd like some ideas on how best to combine the two types of name send me a message and I'll advise as best I can.

TweetBeep - Twitter Alerts By Email

Great little application you can sign up for at no cost. Basically it's Google Alerts but for Twitter! Sign up at: http://tweetbeep.com.

And if you aren't yet using Google Alerts to keep track of your brands, industry news and competitors get signed up at http://www.google.com/alerts/

Company Details On Websites

It never ceases to amaze me that a majority of UK websites fail to comply with the requirements of the Company's Act.

Since January 2007 it has been a legal requirement for Limited Companies to display on their websites their company name and registration details. This makes sense as clients need to know who they are dealing with and non-compliance is subject to heavy fines.

For a fuller explanation download "Requirements of Company's Act From 1 January 2007" .

So if, 2 years on, your web designer has failed to inform you yet of this legal requirement I think you should give him/her a hard time and look at using someone who's a bit more on the ball - NetSecrets maybe?

Domain Names Are Important

We all know you can get a domain name for anything from about £5 per annum upwards but despite this many businesses and individuals limp along with wholly inadequate names.

I see quite large companies who have a website of www.theirdomain.com but insist on using theirdomain@aol.com as their corporate email address. Or senior consultants with jbloggs22@btinternet.com on their business cards. Are they mad? Or just ignorant?

Firstly they are locking themselves into what may be a low quality service just because they can't risk losing their AOL or BT email address. Secondly what does this do for their image?

Anyway rant over for now. If you want to learn more about domain names there are a series of articles on the NetSecrets website as follows:

• What is a domain name?
• Why are domain names important?
• Why buy both .com and .co.uk versions of your domains?
• Should you include keywords in your domain?
• How does the domain registration system work?
• What happens once you have registered a domain name?

There should be something of interest there and if you want any advice on what to register and how to make best use of it then call us on 01386 792972 or email helpdesk@netsecrets.co.uk.

Corporate Blogs - Managed Blogging For SME's

Big business is making great use now of Web 2.0 in general and blogging in particular to serve several purposes. These include building brand image and awareness; getting news stories "out there" quickly and boosting traffic to their main websites.

SME's see the benefit but find it difficult to put in the time required to do this properly as routine posting doesn't fit in well with the demands of being a business owner.

NetSecrets new corporate blogging service takes the pain away. We'll set up your blog, make it match your website and configure it to make it look good and attract visitors. You can post to it as frequently or as infrequently as you want or can manage, and it'll still work fine! We will add to your efforts by getting our copywriting team to learn about you and your business and then post regular news and industry stories to your blog - so you don't have to!

You can read about Managed Blogs on our website or download a PDF, Corporate Blogging , to read at your leisure.

To find out more call NetSecrets on 01386 792972 or email blogs@netsecrets.co.uk.

New Pay-per-Click Guide

Google Adwords is a great way of giving an immediate boost to the number of visitors coming to your website. We are all encouraged to believe that anyone capable of tieing their own shoelaces can do it for themselves which means lots of website owners have a dabble at it, lose a load of money for no results and join the ranks of the cynically disappointed.

The truth of the matter is that just because you run a great lawnmower repair business or because you are a genius litigation lawyer it doesn't automatically follow that you have the skillset to make the most out of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Yet there's a whole industry encouraging you to think the opposite!

Just like any other activity setting up and optimising PPC campaigns relies on knowledge, skill, experience and aptitude. NetSecrets developed these through many years of successful campaigning for our own businesses and have now achieved equally impressive results for several third party clients.

You can download our "Pay-per-Click Advertising Guide"  or go to our main website to read about pay-per-click. Once you have read that you'll have a better idea of what is involved and likely costs. If you want to take it further just call us on 01386 792972 or email ppc@netsecrets.co.uk.

Using Keywords In Your Domain Name

I often get people saying to me that they have a domain name containing their primary keyword so "... that means I'll be at the top of Google for that keyword, doesn't it?"

How wrong can you be? If you have a really good website, that is properly optimised, with great incoming links AND in addition a domain name with valid keywords that will make it even better ranked. On its own the domain helps very little if all other aspects are below par.

This reminds me of a short article I produced ages ago for our domain name website - the article is "Using Keywords In Domain Names" and hopefully you will find the info useful.

Landing Pages For Google Adwords

You know the one about the plumber with the leaky tap or the mechanic whose car keeps breaking down. Well there's another story about the SEO specialist who gives everything he can to his clients' sites and neglects his own.

For some time now I've been getting great results for other people by building specific landing pages for Google Adwords campaigns. The landing page can echo very closely the language in the searcher's query and repeat text from the advert they clicked on which establishes rapport and relevance. The landing page can also offer restricted options enabling the visitor to be sent in the direction we want to send him or her.

Well I've finally got round to doing some for our own websites and an interesting "before and after" comparison can be made by looking at 2 pages on our PlanetStream site. The first page is here and is where those searching for "live streaming" and associated phrases were sent. It worked OK but has now been replaced by a new landing page, here. The first is fine as an information page but doesn't "sell" the idea of working with us. The landing page is much more to the point, tells the visitor what to do next and emphasises why they should choose us.

I know we can go a lot further with this idea and I am quite excited to measure the results of the changes. I'll keep you posted.

Finding Duplicate Content

Most of us are well aware that some unscrupulous website owners are not averse to stealing content off your site and sticking it on theirs. This is not only a rip off of the hard work you put into producing your content but it could potentially damage your search engine rankings through the issue of "duplicate content".

Obviously the search engines don't want results 1 to 10 for a given search to be identical. Good search results need variety which is why Google and the others frown on duplicate content and can penalise sites that are guilty of it. Now it is believed that Google only penalises the second and subsequent copies it sees of any given content so in many cases it will be OK because Google will have seen the original first. But you can't count on that happening every time. If Google sees the plagiarised version before it sees the original then the original will be penalised.

Anyway I have found a terrific tool to help overcome this kind of thing, Copyscape.

Basically you feed it a url click go and it searches the web for any other pages that have copied any significant part of your page. And it really works!

I found a number of sites that had ripped off content from FastSMS, PlanetStream and NetSecrets and have taken first steps to getting them removed. There's no guarantee the plagiarisers will comply in all cases but Copyscape also gives some advice on tackling that.

Give it a try and if you find anything interesting please come back and add a comment.