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TCmarketing SEO

5 Reasons Why Your Search Engine Rankings Might Have Dropped

By Link Building, SEO

Have your website rankings dropped recently in Google? Don’t panic! Before you do anything, you should find try to establish the cause of the problem. The better you understand the reason why your search engine rankings have gone down, the more likely you can prevent future ranking drops.

There are usually five major reasons why your web pages are ranked lower than before:

Reason 1: your website changes / a new website is launched

Most website owners / webmasters will try and update their web pages regularly. As long as the changes are only small and the content being added is relevant to your business and of value to your readers this will not have any negative effect on your rankings. However, if you re-design your web pages or if you optimise a page for a different topic than it is currently optimised for then search engines might reassess your search engine rankings.

Many webmasters, ourselves included, believe that Google has a filter for new website where the change is not managed correctly (the so-called ‘sandbox’). If you change your web pages and don’t do the right things, Google are likely to temporarily down-rank your website to make sure that you are not spamming them.

Solution: You need to encourage them to index your new webpages quickly by submitting a new xml sitemap via a Google Webmaster Tools account.

If you have web pages that have high rankings in Google for important keywords, only change these pages with great care. Make sure that most pages of your website are relevant to the topic of your site. Relevancy to the topic is as important as relevance to a particular keyword. If a new site is being launched create redirects from these highly ranked pages to the new pages that replace them.

Reason 2: the links to your website are problematic

If you have an old website with an established link structure then it’s not likely that your site rankings will drop because of a link change.

If the links to your site are mainly paid links or include a significant proportion of automatically created links from past SEO initiatives then it is likely that your website has been penalised by Google. Sudden changes in the link structure of a website make a website look suspiciously spammy to the search engines.

Solution: If you still use shady automated link building tools or services, stop it now.

New links should be relevant, good quality and built steadily over a period. Link building is a process, not an event. If you don’t work on the links that point to your website then your website will be replaced by websites with a better link structure.

Reason 3: the websites of your competitors change

Everybody wants to be on page one of Google’s results – there are only 10 places! For that reason, it’s only natural that other websites will be listed better than yours if you don’t always view your website as continual work in progress.

Many websites target the same topics and keywords as you do. If these other websites have better content and better links than your site then it’s understandable as to why these sites get better rankings.

Solution: You must offer better content than your competitors. Make sure that you offer many web pages that are relevant to what you do – your products, your services, your expertise and experience. You should also have link building programme in place so that your link profile is stronger than that of your competitors.

Reason 4: your web pages contain spam

Search engines don’t like spam. If search engines find out that you use cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages or any other spam technique on your web pages then it is extremely likely that your website will be penalised.

Solution: Don’t try to cheat Google. It’s simply not worth it if you want to develop a sustainable business online. Remove all spam elements from your web pages. Just because your website hasn’t been penalised yet doesn’t mean that search engines won’t find the spam elements in the near future.

Reason 5: technical problems

Your web server can be the reason for a ranking drop. If your website is down when the search engine spider tries to access your website then search engines cannot give your web pages high rankings because they cannot see your pages.

Some websites display the correct web page in the web browser but the server returns an error code. In that case, search engines won’t index the web pages.

Solution: Make sure that your website is hosted on a reliable server that has no downtime. An SEO web audit will inform you if there are any technical issues on your web pages that can cause ranking problems.

There will be times when there is no obvious reason for a website to drop in the rankings. Again, don’t panic such events are usually short lives and if you stick to a regime of good quality relevant content and good quality relevant links your website will always do OK.

For more information about our SEO Audit services, content marketing and link building services please leave a comment below or call us on 01273 328877

TCmarketing SEO

Is Link Building Still Relevant for SEO in Brighton Today?

By Link Building, SEO

The more of your competitors believe that link building is dead, the better for your own Brighton Business. The truth is that links are still the most important factor for Google’s ranking algorithm and should remain a part od any effective SEO strategy. However, the type of link that points to your website makes a huge difference.

Don’t be fooled by Google’s smoke and mirrors game

When it comes to backlinks, Google is giving advice that confuses a lot of people. In addition, Google’s Penguin updates have created the impression that Google doesn’t like backlinks. Actually, Google only dislikes artificial backlinks.

The problem is that many people do not understand the difference between ‘link scheming’ and ‘link building’. Link scheming leads to penalties. Link building can greatly improve the rankings of your website.

The difference between link building and link scheming

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Google penalises websites that have link scheming links.

The following link types are a red flag for Google and it’s likely that your website will be penalised and are not recommended for SEO:

  • Paid links that do not use the rel=nofollow attribute, including advertorials, paid blog posts and paid footer links.
  • Links from article sites or press releases with over-optimised anchor texts.
  • Backlinks that have been created by tools that create backlinks in bulk.
  • Links from low-quality directory or bookmark sites that only exist to create links.
  • Keyword-rich or hidden links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites.
  • Links from forum comments with optimised anchor texts in the post or signature.

How to decide where to get links

So which type of backlinks are okay with Google and good for SEO? Just ask yourself: would that link make sense if there were no search engines? If the answer is yes, then the link is a good link that will have a positive influence on the rankings of your website on search engines.

You do not need special metrics to judge the quality of a web page. When you find a web page that could link to your site, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does the linking page look good to the average web visitor?
  • Does the page have interesting content?
  • Is the content closely related to my area of business?
  • Does it make sense if the web page links to your site?
  • Would you be happy to give them a link i.e. recommend the site to your site visitors?

If you can answer all questions with “yes” then you should try to get a backlink from that page. It doesn’t matter if that page has a low PageRank as long as it has good content and is relevant to your area of business.

Google uses a technology called Latent Semantic Indexing to try to imitate common sense with its algorithm. If you use common sense in your link building efforts and follow the tips above, you make sure that the backlinks to your website will help you in your search rankings and you are unlikely to have to worry about any future updates of Google’s algorithm.

If you would like to know more about our search engine optimisation services in Brighton please leave a comment below or call us on 01273 328877

How To Get Traffic

How to get Traffic to your site (Beginners)

By Email Marketing, Link Building, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Website, Wordpress

Starting up a website is hard.

Thousands of people are already in your industry and have already got a strong following.

Sometimes breaking into the crowd can seem impossible.

After all you’ve checked out the leading authorities on building up traffic, they’ve all had plenty of advice to give.

Yet here you are looking for more techniques to even get started on building traffic to your site.

Nothing has worked.

You start to wonder…

Have you failed as a content writer? Is your SEO really that terrible?

“…Is my website, useless?”

Building up a following can be really tough. I mean real tough, like climbing mount Everest with banana skin shoes tough.

But it is possible, people have managed it. (Popular Blogs, not climbing Everest with banana’s. Maybe one day).

So, the question, is how?

Out of all of the building traffic techniques you’ve read about:

  • SEO
  • AMA’s
  • Social Media
  • RSS Feeds
  • Video
  • Landing Pages
  • Email Marketing
  • Marketing Automation
  • Calls to Action
  • Analytics
  • Following popular blogs

None of them work.

Most suggested traffic techniques just don’t work

Here’s the cold, hard truth.

There are only four methods which do work, for a Beginner.

“There are only four ways to get traffic to my site?

That can’t be right. Surely not.

I’ve read all of those great posts on Moz, Hubspot etc. about building traffic…

And I mean well, it all makes sense.”

So why hasn’t any of it worked?

Because the vast majority of what people are saying just isn’t effective for startups.

Think about it.

These websites are aiming their blogs at businesses which already have a somewhat popular website, who are just trying to boost their website even further.

If your just starting out and are paying close attention to your followers, then what are you doing?

You don’t even have any followers,

Yet.

You can’t waste time on lead nurturing, email campaigns etc. When you don’t have an audience.

Leading authorities don’t write about how to get traffic, they write about how to improve your traffic.

This is a massive difference and which honestly, should be made much clearer. Your not the only people who have been struggling to figure out how to get their website to take off, TCmarketing included…

How to get Traffic for a Beginner (The only Four Techniques)

…So what exactly is effective for startups?

1. Guest Blogging

If your just starting out and looking to hit your mark on the web scene. This should be your weapon of your choice. Guest blogging is extremely effective at producing unique, targeted visitors for a start up website. The best bit? There are no prerequisites, all you need to get started is a few popular bloggers in your industry.

Steps:

  • Write a Guest Post
  • Ask for a small favour of linking your guest post to related posts
  • If someone shares your post, get to know them! Chances are they will share your blog too
  • Instead of linking back to your home page, link to your email opt in. This could get you many subscribers

2. Interviews/pod-casting

Not only do a lot of people want to hear what industry experts have to say. Industry experts have a lot to say. Don’t be afraid to ask to do an interview with influential people, as long as you keep it relevant interviews are beneficial to everyone.

Steps:

  • Plan your interview
  • Get as many Bloggers involved as possible (within reason)
  • Get permission to share your findings with the world, think about putting this behind a landing page/opt-in list

3. Outreach

Generally spending the time to put out a truly fantastic and original post just does not generate the visitors to be worth while. But here is the interesting part, if you pair them with outreach and the results can be staggering. However your going to need to be prepared to face rejection. Even if your content is truly some of the best in your industry.

Steps:

  • Identify Influential Bloggers
  • Get Noticed (comments, email, social)
  • Request a share/guest post/backlink etc.
  • Build the relationship

4. Advertising

When it comes to earning traffic as a beginner, this is the real deal. Advertising greatly out paces any other technique for generating traffic to your website as a beginner. However there is one flaw with this technique, which I’m sure you’ve already cottoned on to. That’s right, money. Now I’m not going to say go and bust your life savings on advertising for your website. However if you think you are ready for that increased volume, advertising can save you months of work, that’s how effective it is.

Get on with it then!

That’s it! The four techniques you need to invest in to build up traffic to your website.

So, what are you still reading this for?

Get out there and grab that web traffic, it’s waiting for you!

 

Seriously though, I hope our guide on how to get traffic for your start-up website was useful.

I mean, I put in enough time writing this.

So give me a share! Tweet this to your friends! Recommend me to your industry leaders!

 

By Gabriel Hourigan,

TCmarketing SEO

It’s Official, “Links Mean Rankings, Rankings mean Visitors” -Google

By Link Building, SEO

After Google’s recent ‘Penguin’ Algorithm updates some so called SEO experts started to believe that back-links, links to your website from other web properties, were no longer valued by Google.  Many people actually believe links can do more harm than good but in reality that is simply not the case.  Backlinks are still the single most important factor in Google, and the other major search engines ranking algorithm and this is likely to be the case for some considerable time yet.  If you want your Brighton business website to rank highly in the search engine results in order to attract more visitors to your website then good quality, relevant backlinks are still a must.

Make absolutely no mistake – Google says back links are very important.

Earlier this year Google’s Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts confirmed that links are very important if you want to get high rankings:

Partial transcript:

“Back links are really, really big win in terms of quality for search results…..  back link relevance still really helps in making sure we return the best, most relevant , most topical set of search results”

As recently as last month this was again confirmed in a second Matt Cutt’s video:

Partial transcript:

Back links still have many, many years left in them….. for the next few years [Google] will continue to use links in order to assess the basic reputation of pages and websites”

Link Building still has to be done

If you do not do your link building in the right way your site can be penalised by Google for ‘spammy’ (low quality, irrelevant) links.  Without links your site is unlikely to feature highly in the search engine results.  Good quality, high relevant, high quality links are needed for the online success of your Brighton Business.  Link Building is a serious business, just like your own business is a serious business.

Under no circumstances should you use cheap automated link building services.  If something appears in your inbox offering link building services at unbelievably low rates do not be tempted – it will not work and can do your current rankings harm.  Cheap link building initiatives always backfire – remember what you need is link building not link spamming.  Link spamming will lead to penalties that can affect your online business for many months.  Link building however will help you achieve the desired first page position for your website.

Remember too that your web page content, no matter how good is no longer enough in itself to achieve high rankings for your site.  If your site does not feature highly in the search results nobody will see you content, no matter how good it is!

How Can You Build Good Links?

A good back link is a link from a relevant web property that delivers targeted traffic to your website.  “Real’  links are those that people actually click on to visit your website.  These will automatically increase your search engine visibility.  Building good quality links takes time and effort.  It also takes the knowledge and expertise of a professional SEO consultant to be able to identify the right web properties to seek links from.  In today’s market good quality link building services from qualified SEO Professionals will cost anything from £500 +VAT per month and up depending upon how competitive your sector is online.  For a complementary SEO audit call us today on 01273 328877