Google are constantly changing their search algorithm ensuring that sites providing the best user experience appear at the top of the organic listings. Good content is key, backed up by relevant and authoritative inbound links. Obviously this is an over simplification and in fact there are at least two hundred boxes that need ticking to give your site every chance of appearing at the top of Google, but up until now site speed has not been one of them.

Google made us aware about a year ago that this metric would be added into their algorithm which was further backed up by them adding site performance into webmaster tools which shows how fast your site is compared to other sites. But they have recently made an official announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog that they are now including it in their search ranking algorithm.

There is a link within the site performance section of the webmaster tools to a Mozilla Firefox Plugin called Page Speed. Of course this isn’t the only tool available to measure site speed but it is the one that google are recommending and if you click on the help button it takes you to Googles help page so it would be fair to assume that this has been developed by them and as they are the ones that control the algorithm that this is a good tool for the job.

The loading speed of a site has always been important. In the days of dial up connections it was particularly relevant but with the advent of broadband it has been overlooked to a certain extent. But it should be remembered the speed of connections vary enormously especially between cities and the countryside and as more people are using mobile devices to access the web it is once again of the utmost relevance as anyone will know who has tried to access a slow site in an area without a 3G connection. If you combine this with the fact that the speed of your site may well cause you to drop down the search engine rankings then now is the time to optimise the speed of your website.

So don’t wait until your rankings drop because it will take you months to regain them if at all! If you would like any help with increasing the speed of your site then just contact us and we will be happy to help.

Looking to improve your knowledge of SEO or Google Analytics?

Recently we’ve been mulling over the most effective ways to help local businesses promote themselves online and realised we’ve missed one vital area – training courses.

We felt that with finances so tight for businesses at present, paying a digital agency such as ourselves an ongoing fee to manage their websites and/or online marketing may stretch budgets too far. Instead, a one-off charge is far more manageable and invests valuable knowledge in either the business owner or a member of staff who may act as Webmaster.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking to website owners to distill their training “wants and needs” into a focused training course.

Our hope is to pass on our combined knowledge of:
•    Website Analytics
•    Search Engine Optimisation
•    Pay Per Click
•    Google AdWords

This will be via either one-day training courses based in Fulbeck, Lincolnshire with gourmet lunch provided or alternatively, at the clients business premises (where the client takes us out for lunch of course! ;O)

The latter would be the more expensive option as it would effectively be one-to-one consultation, with the Fulbeck course aimed at small groups of about 6 people, helping to reduce the cost per person.

One area we feel is vital for any web training course to be successful is the support after the course ends. So all our training courses will come with a minimum of seven days email and phone support, ensuring any problems or questions that arise  after the course can easily be resolved with the trainer.

We’d really love to hear any feedback or suggestions you might have about the correct course content, how long the courses should run and preferred locations?

If all goes well, we’ll put on the first web training course completely FREE so even if you are only vaguely interested, drop us an email and we’ll put your name in a hat (or similar storage device?) to see who gets to come!

Last year, Google introduced ‘ Google Video Search ‘ and earlier this year we saw these video’s appearing in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages ).

If you perform a search for ‘Michael Jordon’ in Google, you will be presented with results similar to the following screen capture

People can include video on their websites for all kinds of reasons; information, selling a product, tutorials, advertisements etc.

Videos on your website can act as link bait, viral and social media marketing. If users find your video useful, they may link to it. If you use keywords in the title of your video, you could find yourself with targetted links pointing back to your website. This in turn will help with your overall search engine rankings for the keyphrases you wish to show up for in the SERPs.

When adding video’s on your website remember to also submit them to ‘Google Video’ as well as YouTube.