SEO

Rel=Publisher and Rel=Author: Putting the Author in Authority

It seems that since the launch of Google+, we have all been waiting for it to really take off, but so far it has been a bit of a ghost town. The majority of regular users seem to be businesses (ourselves included) and there is far less interaction directly from individuals. Having said that, Google seems to be placing a great deal of weight toward websites that are linking up with their Google+ page and specific content authors. In terms of search quality, I am all for this as it gives a way for us to determine the quality of content around who has personally written it as opposed to just simply how ‘reputable’ the website in general is.

When Do I Use Rel=Author and Rel=Publisher?

There are two tags that Google have given us that enable you to link up your webpage to the Google+ profile of the user that wrote the content and the Google+ page of the business that the website belongs to. The first is rel=author: this bit of code tells Google which individual wrote the content on the page. The second is rel=publisher: this code tells Google which business the page belongs to.

Download the ‘Leaked’ 2012 Google Quality Rater’s Handbook

Over the past couple of days, Google’s latest ‘Quality Rater’s Handbook’ has been leaked online. The handbook gives full information on the rating criteria of websites used by Google’s human raters. There hasn’t been a leak of this kind of data since back at the start of early 2011, when the original 125 page document was released on potpiegirl.com. From an SEO point of view, this can be invaluable in understanding the kind of criteria that Google uses to judge the relevance of search results.

Google Quality Raters Handbook 2012

Google+ Content Authorship with Rel=’Author’

An important and often overlooked part of any SEO campaign is actually the search engine conversion aspect. What I mean by this is getting people to actually click through to your website when you appear in the search listings. Obviously, ranking high in the results page helps toward this, but there are also many other factors that play a part toward getting that all important visit to your website. One of these factors is content authorship.

How Do I Link My Content to My Google+ Account?

Google have been making many changes to the way that the search results are displayed with a variety of different blended result formats. One of these changes was to display additional information on content authors.

Google+ Content Authorship

A fantastic article from Cyrus Shepard on the SEOmoz blog looked into the effect on click-through rates after changing the Google+ profile image that is shown next to the search result listing. The results showed that with an improved profile image there was an increase in organic traffic by 35%. This indicates that there is clearly an advantage to be gained by having your author image displayed next to your search listing. It also tells us that making sure you use an appropriate image is just as important!

4 Tips for Writing Content on Boring Topics

writing content on boring topics

Writing content for a subject that is particularly uninteresting can be slightly demotivating, even before you begin to write it. Perhaps the content happens to be on a topic which you know nothing about, or maybe it’s just plain boring. The one thing to remember, however, is that if a topic is boring and unappealing to you, then your main job is to not convey this feeling within your writing.Thankfully there is a way to make any content for any website seem interesting by following a few simple rules:

Don’t Be a Robot

A blog can have a character all of its own, much like you. In order to do that, you must be able to give it some of your own personality, as this may be a step towards relating to readers. One good way of determining whether you have an interesting blog is reading through it once you’ve finished. If you’re only able to scan two paragraphs before being bored, then it is completely bereft of personality.

Creating Great Content Online – Sof’s Guide [Infographic]

For any online marketing agency, creating great content for a website is essential to having a solid online presence. Whether this is aimed around brand awareness, SEO, bring in sales, or all of the above; you have to get it right. Creating good quality content is not always straightforward though, especially when you have to write on a topic that isn’t conventionally, let’s say, ‘exciting’.

If your content is truly exceptional, you will come to find that more and more people will be compelled to share it through the likes of social networking websites, webmasters will link to it, and most importantly, you will see your site perform well in the rankings. As attractive as this sounds, it’s not without putting in the effort. In fact, content creation is one of the hardest parts. With the industry ramping up at an incredible rate, you need to ensure that your content is more than just white noise.

Creating Great Content Infographic

4 Steps to SEO Friendly Web Page Titles

4-steps-to-seo-friendly-web-page-titlesThe title of your web page is one of the first things that a user will see when searching for your website through the search engines. Not only does it give the user an idea on what the webpage is about, but your webpage title plays an integral role toward the position of your site within the rankings. To make sure that your webpage titles are completely optimised, follow these four simple steps:

Step 1: Title Length

When your webpage is displayed within the search engine results page, a maximum of 70 characters will be displayed. If you go over 70 characters, you could find some of the title is missing and as a result it doesn’t make sense. Alternatively, with some of Google’s recent updates, they will occasionally reword your webpage title if it is too long to ensure a better user experience. If this is the case, it could prove to be very detrimental to your click-through rate.

On the other hand, make sure that your titles are not too short. Keep them between 50 and 70 characters to get the best possible click-through rate.

Step 2: Get Your Keywords in Your Titles

It is really important to include the keywords that you wish to rank well for within the titles of your webpage. For example, our homepage title at the moment is ‘SEO Company Birmingham, Web Design & Social Media – Wow Internet’. This title includes what we do, our keywords (without just spamming), and our brand name. Using this kind of format will give you the best results possible. Try to avoid just having ‘Homepage – Wow Internet’, for example, and get in some relevant keywords.

The EU Cookie Law: What you have to do

EU Cookie Law

With the imminent arrival of the new EU cookie law tomorrow, it is extremely important that your website complies with the new changes. Now, that’s not to say that you should go into a mad panic, but you should at least be aware of what aspects of your website need to comply.

Why are the changes being made?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have set up these new regulations in order to protect users online privacy and give everyone the opportunity to give their content to having their information stored instead of it being done without it. In a survey that the ICO carried out in February last year, they found that only 13% of the respondents indicated that they fully understood how cookies work, 37% had heard of internet cookies but did not understand how they work and 2% of people had not heard of internet cookies at all before participating in the survey. On top of this, 37% said they did not know how to manage cookies on their computer. Due to these results, the ICO felt that changes needed to be made in order to make users aware when their personal data is being taken.