Search Group SEO Perth

Using Heading Tags for on-page SEO

2011-04-01T15:46:00.000+08:00

The following is a simple introduction to the use of heading tags in the formating of on-page SEO activities.

In descending priority of importance, H ref tags should be used to group content on the page, and the titles need to include one or more of the primary focus keywords within the title text.

Heading tags (<H1> to <H6>) are given an additional boost in Search Engine rankings by search engines. The reason for this is that headings traditionally carry important information about the structure of a page. For this reason, it is preferable to use headings to mark important elements in a document and to utilise keywords within the heading tags.

Use your keywords in the headings. Make sure the first level (<H1>) includes your most important keywords.

For greater SEO, only use one <H1> title per page.

Will my website benefit from SEO?

2011-03-25T13:42:00.000+08:00

Understanding the principles of how search engines operate, and how users interact with Search Engines, is fundamental to the core of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and the service that our specialist team at Search Group performs.

Did you know that 85% of people who click on a search result click on the organic search result? Organic, also known as the 'natural' results attract the majority of attention and consumer trust, as opposed to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) such as Google Adwords sponsored links that appears at the top and along the side of the search results page. And the important thing to remember from this 85% of search traffic, is that the only way to rank in the organic results is from SEO.

If we see 100% of searchers clicking the first organic search result, less than 50% will click the first paid result (sponsored link).

When SEO is performed on your website it has a cascading effect. Most of the work you do for organic SEO - content creation, site performance improvements and link building also improves conversion, grows your overall brand awareness and strengthens other marketing efforts.

Search puts you in front of the customer when they need you. Unlike traditional press or off line advertising efforts, and even banners and such, search-driven marketing appears in front of the customer right when they need your services. You know that, because they're searching for you.

81% of internet users use search engines to find a website.

73% of all online transactions begin with a search engine.

87% of searchers only look at the first page of the Search Engine Results.

SEO has a lasting effect. Assuming you stick to good quality SEO techniques with long-term viability, your search engine optimisation work will help you for months or years. Every improvement you make, every page you add to your site, every link you earn will stick around, boosting later efforts.

There is also an opportunity for the little guy to have a win. SEO is a small business' best chance to beat out incumbents. SEO requires a degree of agility that big companies often can't manage. The internet can really be a level playing field, but if you take advantage of the wealth of experience from our dedicated Search Group team, the specialists in SEO, you can tip the online advantage in your favour.

Add a Blog to your online marketing approach

2011-03-24T09:03:00.000+08:00

Adding a blog to your current website is a beneficial activity to increase interest in your website and business services and products. It creates one of our preferred sticky effects, where website users are able to add, subscribe or follow your blog and retain a connection to your business whereby you can market to. A blog also provides a forum for you to make announcements, updates, and share knowledge and advice in an area where you have knowledge and know how.

My recommendations are using a Blogger blog due to the relationship with Google ownership, and content crawling associating to being found more readily within Google's own SERPs. It is free to set up and there are a wealth of template designs that you can choose from, add a logo and you are away...

More intimate template customisation is possible, and our own design team can create a customised template to match your business branding activities as well as assist in creating additional cross pollenation activities for stickiness such as adding links/follow integration with FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. This is a good initial strategy to help cross promote your other Social Media activities encouraging uptake within different Social Media verticals.

Once you have your blog set up, customised, particularly with your contact details and bio, it can assist in providing additional back links into your primary domain shaped around keyword anchor text and draw clients into the business portion of your online activities where they can then request quotes or go into your online shopping cart if this is what you use.

Determine a frequency, as in how often you will blog, and this may be a weekly task or when special information is worth releasing about your business or service area.

Ensure you have a good link strategy back from your website and other social media back into your blog to cross promote this, and also add it to your sitemap for search engines to crawl.

Consider opening your blogs to comments, and thus creating communciation, but I would suggest ensuring you have the moderation option set as unfortunately there are still a few spammers out there which need to be filtered out. Engage with your clients and ask for their feedback, this will then provide you with an informed look at your own business and what clients require.

Maximise your online marketing efforts in your Social Media bios

2011-03-18T10:58:00.000+08:00

Regardless of the Social Media platform, I recommend that you don't leave your biography blank... or created in a haphazard manner with little thought, time or effort.

In the exercise of setting up your new online presence in each Social Media channel (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, FourSquare et al), take some time to consider firstly your choice of username - does it include any useful keywords for your industry, services or products for example? Have you considered having multiple user accounts/usernames so that your business can be found under distinct categories or sections?

When your Twitter account shows up in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), your description/bio will also show up in the SERPs. This makes it quite helpful when trying to be found for a keyword and/or phrase in your industry vertical.

Many Social Media channels enable you to upload images, design backgrounds and customise the overall design of your Social Media platform. Use this important screen real estate to reinforce your brand and business logo, keep consistency with your corporate colour scheme to show the relationship to your website, and include useful information such as web address, email address, physical address, other contact details, and perhaps even some Call To Action activity with a current advert tile for your latest offer or incentive.

Now take note, if you weren't already aware, Bing and Google Search Engines confirmed in December 2010 that social media positioning, and commentary has a direct impact on rankings. So let's use the value from this to aid your online marketing efforts and get it all tied in together for your business. Bing has a direct content relationship deal with Facebook, and Google likewise has a relationship deal with Twitter. So the more you self promote in these Social Media platforms, the search engines are able to discover more and more of your content pages, links, and the keyword anchor text that point to these pages.

Search Group have regular Social Media training seminars each month, so if you are interested in a free lunch, with 2hrs free training and resources provided let me know so I can forward you an invitation. If you require some direct assistance with researching suitable usernames in the different Social Media channels, or getting set up please simply let me know.

Custom Website Development with Perth webdesigners Star 3 Media

2011-03-05T12:08:00.000+08:00

Not just a website, it is your online business portal and entrance point for your consumers to your products and services.

Looking to stand out of the crowd and get noticed?

Search Group, leading Perth SEO company, is the sister company to Perth website design company Star 3 Media (http://www.star3media.com.au/). This enviable relationship provides a natural harmony in overall online marketing practices and synergies between the Vorian Media Group (http://www.vorian.com.au/) of companies.

This operational partnership provides a two way resource flow in skills and knowledge. Search Group is able to offer website maintenance, upgrades and rebuilds in-house, along with custom web based programming. Star 3 Media have exceptional graphic designers and talented web developers able to provide a range of web based applications to suit your requirements.

Star 3 Media involves Search Group from initial client brief, website development and go-live launch processes where Search Group then take on the long term search engine optimisation and marketing activities for client.

Get on board today and enjoy the combined benefit of our online specialists.

Don't miss out on business because of 404 errors

2011-02-24T13:50:00.000+08:00

Have you heard of a '404-Error' before?

If you have ever visited a page of a website that has been moved, deleted or renamed, or if you typed in part of the address wrong yourself or even clicked on a broken link, you’ll see an error telling you that there’s no page at that address. The technical name for this is a ‘404’ error - Page Not Found, and they’re very important to handle correctly.

When a website doesn’t have a custom 404 error page, website users will see the hosting company's default error screen which as a general rule isn't all that useful, and starts to create a sense of frustration for website visitors, and in many cases becomes the point of abandonment for the user leaving your website. Once you've spent all the time and effort in driving traffic to a website we certainly don't want to see the user leave without spending time on your site!

It's actually possible to customise your 404 error pages that website visitors will see on your website. This allows you to make the page look exactly like any other page of your website maintaining your branding and professional appearance along with access to your site's navigation menu, but at the same time displaying a clear message to your visitors telling them that the page they were looking for has not been found. A simple statement to include on the page is: “Sorry, it looks like we couldn’t find the page you were looking for”. I also recommend the inclusion of a simple on-page site map or search box, so that the user can quickly locate the area or page of the website that they want to go to and you direct them along their way.

Remember that a 404 error page may be the first page a user sees of your website and it’s an error page. They might assume the entire site is down, where actually the only problem is that a page has been renamed. Users don't tend to expend the energy thinking about what the issue might be and problem solving this for you!

Some websites even use the 404 page as another place to push their products onto visitors. “We couldn’t find the page you were looking for… so why not have a look at these other items instead…”

I've even seen a few funny customised 404 error messages from companies used to generate 'viral' marketing, and encourage discussion about their company online such as the following:

http://www.dilbert.com/sadsad

http://patterntap.com/gfdgdf

http://www.nextwaveperformance.com/oops.html

http://www.soocial.com/404

http://www.southparkstudios.com/404

Every website hosting operating system, and development application has a different manner in which they can implement customised 404 Error Pages, and some are definitely more complex then others. Search Group can assist your online marketing efforts working with your current designer or developer, or independant to these, and provide a customised 404 Error Page to suit your brand requirements.

We recommend to clients monitoring error pages like your 404 error page in your website, using website analytics to determine what drives traffic to this point and identifying and resolving these problems whether internal or external causes.

Website Validation Check... is there a noise coming from your engine?

2011-02-23T13:34:00.000+08:00

Bit like a car that may gradually, or even suddenly, start to make an unusual noise from underneath the hood you have choices...
- keep driving and hope for the best
- pop the hood and take a look around yourself
- or head over to your trusted mechanic and get it sorted

At Search Group we regularly provide ongoing reports, and expand upon our initial site audit where we outline any concerns that may exist under the hood of your website, particularly when it comes to the performance of your website both for the user experience and the performance and interaction of Search Engines across your website.

I notice regularly when performing reviews that many client website's still have invalid websites that do not conform to web standards and meet the necessary quality checks applied.

The following short and simple reference is provided to explain in depth why it is beneficial to validate your website, and answer some of the common misconceptions around this:http://validator.w3.org/docs/why.html

Having a website that has errors or even warnings can be hazardous to its performance.

Just like when you drive behind another car that has a broken brake light, you the web site owner are not always aware of the problem because it seems to just work for you... but this may not be the same experience for everyone else on the internet. Which is why website validation checks exist to help find problems and provide an opportunity to fix them once and for all.

I typically find if a problem exists on the front page of a website, that it then carries through the rest of the website. This is NOT the time for you to learn html so don't panic! I encourage you to engage with your website designer, and request them to review their website code and work toward resolving any issues. The website designer can then double check their changes to ensure that they validate through either:
http://www.totalvalidator.com/
http://validator.w3.org/

There are different settings that can be chosen when running a validator, but I encourage the designer to be ruthless in this approach. Our aim is for a perfect health score on the test, but even a reduction in the number of errors and warnings I will consider a win! And you will have a win too. By providing a website without errors will make for a better user experience and a much happier search bot with more opportunity of actually crawling through your entire website to find all your great content and getting this included within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

If you don't currently have a website designer available to assist you, or need a helping hand please let Search Group know as we supply website maintenance support as part of list of services.

A Little Offer for a Little Icon - favicon.ico

2011-02-22T14:54:00.000+08:00

If your website is not currently taking advantage of a simple and important web design feature known as the favicon, then you are missing out on some additional brand exposure and instilling brand recognition into your website visitors. The favicon (abbreviation for favourite icon), is a visual representation of your business, and is normally the logo of your business.

So where is the favicon seen?

First and formost the favicon is seen as the little icon in the URL address bar of your web browser next to your website address. When users bookmark or save your website to their favourites apart from the title of the website being stored as a link, the favicon image appears next to your link in the users browser. If they also put your website in to their links bar within the browser or drag the favourite to their desktop for easy access, this favicon is used as the icon representing your business website. As well, in web browser tabbed browsing, the favicon is next to the website name on each tab…

So as you can see this simple, effective, visual reminder, really helps your website stand out of the crowd, and should encourage users to come back and revisit your site.

Some search engines actually check to see if your website has a favicon, and may use this as part of their ranking algorithm as they determine how professional your website is, which could help to determine whether your website should appear above another. So when they check, and they don’t find one in the default location it may also trigger unnecessary 404 Errors (Page not Found) which we would like to avoid.

Now that you can see how important it is to have this little thing in place, how do you get one?

If you already have a website designer please contact them directly and request them to get this implemented for your website, creating the icon logo, locating this on the server, and ensuring it is in the default location and each page of your site has the necessary meta tag pointing to it indicating that it now exists.

If you would like Search Group to get this done for you please let me know as I will have our own internal design/development team do this for $65 + gst during February 2011 as a special offer. This will provide your own customised favicon created and implemented properly across your site.

... the small things do matter!

Domain Name Registration - Assisting your Online Marketing with Domain Names

2011-02-21T11:01:00.000+08:00

The humble domain name is a very important step in your online marketing activities, normally derived from your business name, there are actually many considerations when it comes to the choice in your domain name registration ... and we would like to also have you think about not just the one domain, but look towards a multi funnel approach to driving targeted traffic to your business by registering multiple domain names.

Search Engines take your domain name into consideration as the primary source of keywords to indicate what your business or service is about. The TLD (Top Level Domain) also provides information about locality or region. For example a .com.au domain name will inform the search engine and users that the website is servicing primarily the Australia public.

Since the importance to search engine visibility relies on a suitable domain name, this is where Search Group can assist you in researching suitable options, providing suggesting based on appropriate research and guide you to making an informed decision to benefit your marketing approach, then perform a domain name registration.

Be careful of abbreviations or acronyms with your domain name, as these shortened versions generally don't contain keywords firstly, so don't help search in that manner, or can also cause other conflict issues as the abbreviation may be confused or associated to other things non related to your own business!

It is feasible to use additional domain names to capture focus areas of your business in the online space and funnel these through to a dedicated micro site about this area in your business. A lot of a time a business with many different areas that they service or represent creates a diluted approach, where as the creation of a focused approach such as a micro website on a key area ensures a more targeted approach around the content and user expectations that match and lead to better conversion. This approach also increases your online footprint creating more visibility in specific industry channels and hence more traffic and hopefully more conversions!

Please feel free to talk to our online marketing advisors for more ideas.

Search Group is on LinkedIn - Follow our Company

2011-02-18T12:23:00.000+08:00

Perth, Western Australia based search engine optimisation company Search Group is now on LinkedIn.com

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 80 million members and growing rapidly, and is really like a business version of Facebook. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. With our LinkedIn profile you can follow and connect with our staff and organisation as a whole and gain the benefit from following our company and receiving our special offers via this medium.

Also find out about our sister companies, and our activities on Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter and Blogger.

To follow us on LinkedIn search for Search Group or visit the link: http://www.linkedin.com/company/search-group_2

Search Group on Facebook - Find us: Search Group Australia

2011-02-17T09:57:00.000+08:00

Yes, your favourite Perth SEO company Search Group is continuing their Social Media updates for 2011 with a revamp of their online presence on Facebook. You can 'Like' our company Fan Page on Facebook by searching for us as: Search Group Australia

We'll be evolving our Facebook activity pretty quickly, and will have a lot of useful information, links and special offers for you to take advantage of.

With over 700,000+ Facebook users in Perth and 550 Million and growing world wide we hope to find a few friends out in Facebook.

Remember the whole idea of Social Media is a communication channel, and we want to connect with all our clients, future prospects, staff and friends and keep them up to date with what Search Group is currently doing and planning to do in the near future. We want to hear from you, and love your feedback.

So remember to tell your friends about us as well as we grow our fan base and spread the word!

Search Group on Twitter @SearchGroupAU

2011-02-15T10:54:00.000+08:00

A bit of cross platform promotion this morning, as we let you know about Search Group being on Twitter.

If you don't have a Twitter account and just want to see what we are saying you can visit the Twitter website to see our posts: http://twitter.com/SearchGroupAU or see the latest tweets to the right hand side of our blog page within our Twitter Application window.

For those of you already on Twitter, please follow @SearchGroupAU, and we'll follow you back as we will love to communicate with you and catch up online.

You may be in one of our #FF FollowFriday posts which will increase your exposure, and we're here to also provide valuable industry information, and details about our own company. So follow @SearchGroupAU so you can get discounted services, find out about new seminars and hear about our success stories.

Search Group on FourSquare

2011-02-14T08:52:00.000+08:00

When you come to visit Search Group (www.searchgroup.com.au) in our offices at: Suite 90, City West Business Centre, 102 Railway Street, West Perth, WA 6005 remember to 'Check-in' using the social media platform FourSquare.

Search Group venue location on FourSquare: http://foursquare.com/venue/5155534

We are encouraging our clients, visitors, seminar attendees and staff to join us online via www.FourSquare.com and connect to our business.

We'll be offering incentives for frequent visitors as well as "Tips" that are left. See if you can also get a photo of yourself in front of one of our signs and become the Mayor of Search Group!

If you would like to find out how your business can use FourSquare for online marketing please contact Search Group on 1300 100 000.

Free SEO 101 Seminars with Search Group

2011-02-12T22:27:00.000+08:00

Register for Perth SEO specialists Search Group Free SEO Seminars

Search Group located in West Perth, run regular small group seminars each month on a range of topics including SEO 101 and Social Media. The seminars run for two hours and include a light lunch and an opportunity to network with other businesses whilst discussing Search Marketing.

If you would like to understand what SEO is all about, and how it can generate targeted traffic for your website then contact our search team on 1300 100 000 or send through a seminar request via the website: www.searchgroup.com.au.

During the SEO 101 training sessions we will provide a look at the basics of SEO and what is needed for your website to be found online covering:
- how Search Engines work
- how users interact with Search Engines
- why Search Engine Optimisation is necessary
- what is the difference to Search Engine Marketing - PPC
- the constantly changing environment
- using real world examples to put it all together
- Black Hat, Grey Hat, White Hat?
- advanced SEO
- question time

This is a great opportunity to look at and discuss some of your own websites during the session and pull them apart and receive SEO advice and answers to any questions you may have.

Meet Matt Lynch - Head of Search for Perth SEO company SearchGroup.com.au

2011-02-12T07:23:00.000+08:00

Introducing the driving force behind leading Perth SEO and Online Marketing company Search Group

Matt Lynch's position in Search Group is as Head of Search. His primary role in this position is to drive targeted traffic for clients to their websites, increasing website traffic and generating conversions leading to a Return On Investment (ROI) for the business owners.

Matt does this through the use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google Adwords Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the use of Social Media Marketing (SEM), and enhancing client's websites so that they are at the top of their game in performance and ready to receive the traffic then capture it, and generate the interaction and conversions.

Over the last 20 years Matt Lynch have been involved in IT, and has built up a toolkit of skills and knowledge that combine very well for his current role. Matt started in IT from a design background winning state awards in art and technical design. In the past he has had involvement with:

graphic and print design
website design and development
internet marketing
worked with small business startups
enhanced his IT skills in telecommunication, audio, video, hardware and system administration
evolving and new technologies and leveraging these for businesses

From this background Matt considers himself different to many of the other standard SEO's in the market as when he looks at a website there is no point driving traffic to a website if it doesn't convert to sales for the client... they will be unhappy regardless, so he is able to make recommendations that support Search Group's online marketing packages of SEO, SEM and SocialMedia activities so that everything works hand-in-hand together:

design and layout
navigation and usability
efficiency and functionality of the website, architecture and infrastructure
security and confidence
... as well as what Search Engines are looking for to integrate with their rules and search bots.

Matt considers that once we get the eyeballs on the website:

we want them to hang around and spend time on the site
we want them to engage with the client and create a conversion, pick up a phone, send an email, make a sale.
we want them to tell others about it to bring attention to their friends, family and co-workers
we want them to want to follow along, and come back, creating loyalty.

Matt is charismatic and energetic, technical but also able to convey what needs to be done simply, clearly and efficiently. Search Engine Optimisation is a particular passion and interest of Matt. His skill set has built companies online profiles and placed them competitively at the forefront of their industries over time. Over many years Matt has been through the continual wave of change in this discipline and has learnt to base his methodology in sound principles that have stood the test of time. Matt has lectured and presented on SEO topics, and maintains an online connection with the industry so that he is always aware of industry trends and advancement.

Matt is well versed in marketing via newly developed online methodologies, and has practiced and established marketing through RSS syndication, i-mode, Facebook, Twitter, EDMs, applications and gadgets, affiliate programs and competitions just to list some of his experience. Matt has worked with press agencies, online media agencies and portal sites to promote products and services to specific channels managing multi-million dollar campaigns.

Matt regularly blogs and comments on SEO, online marketing, design and development through Social Media and can be found:
LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/mattlynchseo
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/mattrlynch
Blog: http://seo-matt-lynch.blogspot.com/

We would love your business to be able to use Matt's knowledge to improve your online sales, so talk to our online marketing consultants at Search Group on 1300 100 000, email search@searchgroup.com.au or visit the website to learn more about our available packages at www.searchgroup.com.au.

Introducing Perth SEO company Search Group

2011-02-11T22:40:00.000+08:00

Who is Search Group?

Perth, Australia - specialist SEO agency Search Group (www.searchgroup.com.au) is a sub division of local Perth website design and development agency Star3 Media (www.star3media.com.au). Evolving as an independent business in their own right, Search Group supports the in-house design and customised development group making SEO friendly websites, whilst also supplying specialist SEO consulting services to Perth businesses and other website design agencies.

Our Services

Search Group offer SEO audits and evaluation services for website owners, along with SEO packages, SEO consulting, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) with Google Adwords, Yahoo! and Facebook and Social Media packages for businesses securing social media usernames, setting up social media, and managing social media for businesses. Search Group also provide website performance reviews, looking at functional design, usability testing, performance testing and tie this in with providing search friendly layouts and design.

Contacting Search Group

Address: Suite 90, Plaistowe Mews, City West Business Centre,
102 Railway Street, West Perth, WA 6005
Free Call Australia: 1300 100 000
Telephone: (08) 9278 8899
International Callers: +618 9278 8899
Fax: (08) 9278 8890
Email: support@searchgroup.com.au

Our Evolving Blog

Search Group will be regularly updating our blog to provide tips, techniques and advice in regards to SEO, SEM and Social Media, with related information on website design and development and new technologies as they evolve. We welcome your constructive comments along the way and hope to engage with you as we discuss evolving online marketing techniques.