Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC)

This section of the site is the one that is likely to be the most active with discussions on search engine optimisation (SEO), link building, Google, Bing, local listings [places pages], Google Boost, SEO best practice, tutorials and Q&A, ranking factors as well as Google Adwords.

How to let Google know you are a brand and not a content farm

published on April 6, 2011 in SEO & PPC

This is the first guest post from Andrew Hanelly @hanelly from TMG Custom Media who wrote a nice piece about search engine optimisation I reacted on earlier this year. Are you worried by the latest Google’s algorithm update (Farmer / Panda Update)? Then read on. As Google’s algorithm gets smarter, content farms are getting weeded [...]

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Why SEO would matter even MORE if search engines stopped running

published on February 4, 2011 in SEO & PPC

Search Engine Optimisation principles are here to stay In a recent article, Andrew Hanelly (@hanelly) wrote an interesting piece about why SEO would matter even if search engines stopped running (can you guess where I got my post title from?). I can wholeheartedly agree with everything he said, as it’s all about the visitor’s experience [...]

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Google Boost in the UK: heads up local businesses, here’s a new Google service you won’t want to miss!

published on January 30, 2011 in SEO & PPC

January 30, 2011

Google keeps finding new ways to make money: introducing BoostWhile doing some keyword research for an accountant client based in London, I came across the following – very interesting – search engine result page:You’ll notice the blue (A) marker at the top of the result page (in the pink Adwords area) and the corresponding blue [...]

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90+ CSS galleries to kick start your practice website link building

published on November 27, 2010 in SEO & PPC

November 27, 2010

Originally published 20/3/10, last updated 27/11/10 Link building is essential to your website’s success. Getting links to a website is hard work. Getting links to a B2B site is even harder. We therefore need to cover a wide range of basic sources of links to help the site along the way.CSS galleries are one of [...]

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What is the impact of the new Google Places / Local for accountants?

published on October 28, 2010 in SEO & PPC

October 28, 2010

What does the new Google search engine results page layout mean for accountants? The SEO sphere has been buzzing for the past 24 hours about the new layout for Google search engine result pages (SERP). While doing a routine search for “accountant in Birmingham”, I saw this new layout in effect and could witness why [...]

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Accountant SEO Q&A: Google PageRank, what it is?… and most importantly, what it’s not.

published on October 11, 2010 in SEO & PPC

October 11, 2010

PageRank is a proprietary technology used by Google to “score” a page importanceA few very clever people have written about what PageRank (Google PR) is and how it works, and there probably isn’t anything groundbreaking that I could add to the discussion (see the last paragraph of this post for link to some very good [...]

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Accountant SEO Q&A: is search engine optimisation enough to drive large amounts of traffic to my practice website?

published on September 1, 2010 in SEO & PPC

September 1, 2010

Should search engine optimisation be the be all and end all of your online marketing?In our first Q&A session we discussed what search engine optimisation (SEO) is. Today, we’ll talk about what SEO isn’t, and why search engines traffic should only represent around 25% of your overall website traffic.Search engine optimisation is not guaranteedSearch engine [...]

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Is your brand getting the new – and not necessarily improved – Google treatment?

published on August 24, 2010 in SEO & PPC

August 24, 2010

Are the new Google results really helping their users? Google announced last Friday that they were testing displaying a higher number of results from a single domain on brand related searches.Instead of the usual 2 results max. per domain, people are now seeing a lot more pages from the same domain on the first page [...]

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Accountant SEO Q&A: what is search engine optimisation?

published on August 18, 2010 in SEO & PPC

August 18, 2010

What is SEO and can it help my accountancy practice gain new clients?This first question marks the start of a fortnightly Q&A blog post that should provide accountants with a better understanding of what search engine optimisation is and how it can help drive prospects to their website.I will try to keep things as jargon-free [...]

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Link-building: site trust, page relevancy, link position, anchor text

published on July 2, 2010 in SEO & PPC

July 2, 2010

Accountant link building 101: what you need to knowAlthough this article is aimed specifically at accountants, the principles below apply to any website. Incoming links, also called inbound links or backlinks, are links from other websites to yours. They are currently the main “off-page” (external to your site) ranking factor used by search engines such [...]

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Bing says goodbye to META description as a ranking factor

published on April 30, 2010 in SEO & PPC

April 30, 2010

Stop worrying about meta tags as a ranking factors. When Yahoo announced, last October, that they were no longer using the meta keywords tag, scores of SEO went back to their old test pages to see what was what and try to prove them wrong.As it turned out, Yahoo did make a mistake, they were [...]

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How to make your website or blog faster and keep visitors – and Google – happy

published on April 16, 2010 in Blogging,SEO & PPC

April 16, 2010

Learn how to speed up your website Last friday saw the announcement that speed was now officially a raking factor in Google’s algorithm. For most websites, improving their loading time is straightforward: they can start by compressing images and pages, caching static elements and combining and minifying CSS and Javascript. This is what I will [...]

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It’s official: your website speed is now a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm

published on April 14, 2010 in SEO & PPC

April 14, 2010

Fast websites rewarded with better Google rankings.Back in November 2009, Matt Cutts, currently heading Google’s Webspam team, hinted that speed could be taken into consideration when they assess a site.Well, it’s now official: website speed has become one of the 200+ factors Google uses when ranking websites on their result pages. Matt Cutts discuss this [...]

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15 ideas that will get links to your accountancy practice website

published on March 12, 2010 in SEO & PPC

March 12, 2010

With no links your practice website will not get very far. Because links are one of the main ranking factors in search engine optimisation, they can be relatively hard to come by, especially for B2B websites and websites discussing what is perceived to be a “boring” subject. However, if you see links for what they [...]

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Homepage SEO: large firms of accountants can also make mistakes

published on March 5, 2010 in SEO & PPC

March 5, 2010

Please note: MacIntyre Hudson commented that the addition of the code was deliberate, so take the second part of this article with a pinch of salt. MacIntyre Hudson blocked search engines from indexing their homepage. Be sure not to make the same mistake. Nine times out of ten, your homepage will be the most important [...]

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Search engine optimisation for accountants – the basics

published on January 22, 2010 in SEO & PPC

January 22, 2010

Search engines are the starting point for many web users when they are looking for a new accountant (or a new “anything” for that matter). That’s why it is vital, not only for your practice to have a website, but also that your site can be found in the search engines (at the top, preferably).Fact: [...]

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Did Google just kill an SEO Myth or reinforce my convictions?

published on January 15, 2010 in SEO & PPC,Website Design

January 15, 2010

Valid code is a mark of professional ethics from a web designer. Back in November Matt Cutts, the public face of Google for most webmasters, announced in a video that W3C validation doesn’t boost a website ranking. What doesn’t boost website ranking? W3C validation, what is it?The W3C is the main organization in charge of [...]

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