Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for Beginners

 Today an average of 1,802,330,400 people around the globe use the internet, just over a sixth of the whole world’s population. However, if you ask most of these people what SEO is you will receive a blank stare in response, despite the fact that SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is rapidly becoming the most effective online marketing tool and is remarkably self explanatory. Many of us come into contact with examples of SEO every day, but we are just not aware of it. It isnot until you actual start studying the techniques and systems used that you are then able to recognise them in existing sites. 

Although SEO can seem a little confusing at first, often it is about just making small modifications to your site in order for it to appear higher up in a search engine’s ‘organic searches’. It is important first and foremost that your site is user friendly; visitors will not want to use a complicated, messy website. This also makes it easier for Google’s ‘crawlers’ to learn what your site is about. Using unique key words and content that differentiates your site from others is also beneficial to Google as it makes their job easier. This is because when Google’s ‘crawlers’ find your site they are able to see what makes your site different to all the others that are also jostling for that top search engine result spot. In many cases the elements are there but are not being used in the correct way, this is where SEO comes in. Using SEO effectively will increase visitor traffic to a site, which is the aim at the end of the day.

SEO is about optimising your website so it gains a better page ranking in the organic search results, however there is no guarantee it will be at the top. Often at the top of popular searches is a section where sites have paid to advertise, this is not SEO but rather PPC (pay per click) which is often used in conjunction with SEO to boost traffic to sites. PPC adverts often appear down the right hand side of results too and attract a lot of clicks, but there can be strong competition for the best search terms. PPC can increase the CTR (Click Through Rate), which is how many people click through on to your site. CTR is essentially the number of times an advert is clicked on divided by the number of times the advert was delivered by Google. The higher the CTR, the more traffic is flowing into your website. Using ‘friendlier’ URLs is also advised so that visitors can see what it is they’re clicking onto, and it is also easier to remember and link to if it is to the point. 

  One of the most important things when starting out in SEO is to make sure your website is accessible to its users. It’s vital that your site is easy to navigate. This way users can quickly and easily find what they’re looking for and will be more willing to use the site again. This is best achieved by having a clear site map, with a naturally flowing hierarchy so the most important aspects are obvious. Also controlling navigation from page to page with text links makes the site easier for both users and crawlers to use. If you bear in mind all of these SEO basics you will be well on your way to improving the popularity of your site, if it’s easier for Google to use, it will move higher up the organic search results and will ultimately receive more traffic.

Put Your Car to Work with WhipCar - Car Hire to Revolutionise How You Rent a Car

We are very excited by our latest SEO and PPC contract, a site we believe is going to revolutionise the way we all think about our cars.

WhipCar is a brand new peer to peer car rental service that offers car owners and those in need of a car a platform to connect and interact. Got a car sitting around days on end in the garage? You can rent your car out for the rates you want – whether it’s £50 a day, £8 an hour or another time scale you want to put your car to work for. And for those in need of a car every now and again but can’t justify the outlay to buy one, you’ve got the perfect site to go and get a temporary rental on your street for a price you won’t get elsewhere...it’s that easy! WhipCar is starting off with hire car in Maida Vale only, but soon will be branching across the country so anyone interested should let them know their interest.

We’ve helped WhipCar get their brand started with pay per click campaigns targeting niche markets and wider scale audiences to ensure they get the best returns possible. Orchid Box have also been in partnership with the site designers to ensure the interface is user friendly and optimised for search engines. Though a site like this obviously thrives on buzz and chatter across blogs, news sites and other online communities (and indeed, offline), it’s still essential that the site is ready to be indexed by Google and targeting the right sort of keywords.

So check out the site at www.whipcar.com and see how you can put your car to work, or rent the car next door – be part of the revolution from the start and save yourself money along the way!

Vote SEO At The Forthcoming General Election

We’ve see it on the news, read about it in the papers, heard it on the radio... Yes, the ubiquitous debates between the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders just can’t be avoided. Not that we’d want to avoid them – what with Cameron’s clumsily applied foundation, Brown’s offensive tie, and Clegg’s boy-next-door eagerness, they’re providing much entertainment (alongside some interesting political discussion, of course).

So what does this mean for SEO? Well, for the next few weeks, there will be some politically-focused keywords that are typed into search engines by thousands of users everyday. A fact which SEO lovers should be well aware of - those canny Tories being one of them.

Type ‘Labour’ into Google and up pops a Conservative PPC ad, entitled ‘Labour Has Failed’. Can’t get much clearer than that. Type in ‘Conservatives’ and, while Labour have failed to cash in on this keyword (surprising, given how adept their MPs seem at cashing in on anything else), Ann Summers, of ladies lingerie fame, have taken the opportunity to advertise their wares through PPC:

This was an opportunity not to be missed by Orchid Box (we spotted this prior to seeing Ann Summers’ efforts, we promise) . When working on the PPC for London boutique spa, Kuno Tierra, we bid on the keyword ‘Labour’. Now, I can see you scratching your head, wondering, ‘How on earth did they manage to link a political party with a high-end beauty salon?’

Here’s how:

And,

Inspired, no?

It can be a great idea to link PPC to current affairs, because even if your ad isn’t clicked on, you are likely to be seen by a very high number of users.

NB: Orchid Box do not affiliate themselves with any political party.

Facebook PPC Advertising Help from Orchid Box

Facebook advertising is a fast growing PPC market which increasing numbers of business are looking at taking advantage of. Though in comparison to Google Adwords the platform has its limitations and the advert options are somewhat limited, the opportunities for demographic targeting are massive and ensure that many companies enjoy a much stronger return from Facebook PPC than they do from Google. 

Though Google allows you to target a specific region, placement site or search term, for many projects these options are somewhat restricting and the ability in to target a group of people you know convert well for your site in Facebook is a great advantage to have. Although it is perhaps more speculative (people are not using FB to find your service), and click through rates are low, traffic opportunities are high (over 20m users in the UK alone) and Facebook ads allows you to target a wide range of options:

• Age range - any exact or age range above 13, or even those users on their birthday
• Geographical region – Google does this by IP address, Facebook by user profiles, so accuracy cannot be guaranteed
• Gender
• Education
• Occupation
• Relationship status and sexual orientation
• Language
• Interests – according to any keyword on a user’s profile

This demographic targeting is hugely useful for aiming for any users you know convert well, and by setting up different campaigns targeting different groups you can track which are the more effective and optimise accordingly. 

Unfortunately Facebook does have its limitations too. As mentioned before, the platform is not hugely user friendly, and the keyword targeting is somewhat laboured – you can only target the keyword options that Facebook gives you, which makes keyword selection is somewhat laboured (though we’ll worry about that). Ad format sizes are fixed, and though you may have an image on the ad it is fairly small and limiting (no banner ads). Having said this, images are a very effective way to improve click rates and it is significantly cheaper promoting image ads on Facebook than Google. 

In terms of costs, Facebook gives no real accurate estimations of what your ads will initially cost, and there are no estimate tools available yet so it’s difficult to predict costs. Create a good ad with good text and you’ll find costs can be cheaper than Google (depending on the subject matter), but it can also more expensive too. 

If that all sounds very complicated but very promising, contact Orchid Box today to see what we might be able to offer you!

Moving To A New Domain - Orchid Box Has A New Address

Orchid Box today performed a swift and speedy shift of domain from our old abode in Soho to a fresh and exciting new upgrade in Covent Garden, in the heart of London. We've made sure The Right Honourable General Google is aware, and this particular domain change isn't going to affect our indexation nor find us any new keywords (unlike the fantastic new Orchidbox.it domain!). And at the risk of sounding too geeky, I'm stopping the SEO-related metaphors there.

Orchid Box's Old London SEO Office - Where Dreams Were Made...

At Orchid Box we move like lighting whatever we do!

You can now find us in deepest darkest Covent Garden, amidst the tourists and the street performers, at 11-15 Betterton Street, WC2H 9BP, fighting with our new complicated heater and the bracing cold from the windows (which I am sure are about a millimetre thick...). Hopefully we can get it to stay on for longer than an hour (we're only good at computer technical stuff, see) and then we can take our thawing feet off the computer power supplies and get some real heat. Roll on the summer!

Our name up in lights already! With a rather strange "H"...

We've also got a new phone number, and a reception to answer them for us, plus an amazing swimming pool made out of jelly. One of those three things might not be completely true.

So what are you waiting for? Get ahead of the game in 2010 and give us a bell on 0207866 8101!

(And don't worry, we've placed a 301 redirect from the old offices to ensure we don't lose any customers!)

The Boss pretending to work while others shift boxes...(he's actually watching Youtube)

Aziende al Top - Orchid Box Italy/Italia is launched!

Buon giorno!

Well, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Or at least those in the amazing land of Italy have been waiting for...

Orchid Box Italia is live and in business. We're already quite possibly the most multi-national office in the world (we've lost track of where everyone is from!) but thanks to our multiplicitous links in the land of Pizzas, Pasta and SEO (that's Italian for SEO) we now have a fresh side to Orchid Box, with the normal SEO, PPC and web development services on offer for Italian companies or Italian-speaking sites. You can find the Orchid Box Italia site here, with a flash new front page for your perusal.

So aziende al top (climb to the top) of Google.it with Orchid Box and enjoy our services in a new language, but no loss of our hard-working mentality!

SEO Tips for 2010 from Orchid Box...Seer-like Projections for the New Year. Or not.

Another year (in fact, another decade….ouch), and another inevitable pile of 2010 lists in all facets of business, entertainment, and life in general. So at Orchid Box we thought we do something different. Then we changed our minds. Cue the fanfares…

Welcome to Orchid Box’s Hot SEO Tips for 2010!

In the constantly evolving world of Search Engine Optimisation predictions are made every week for the next exciting development to follow. Much as the predictions for the next “Pele” or the next “Beatles” are made every year, a great number of these end up thrown in the bin within a few months, but it’s vital to have an idea of at least the potential areas of growth to keep your competitors a step behind. If you get ahead of the game for one big SEO trend you can boost your business impressively within weeks. Here’s just a few predictions for the coming year…

SEO Tips for 2010 - Increased SEO Budgets

This is a guarantee for the next year – companies will begin taking internet marketing and SEO a lot more seriously as they see the effect it has on business online fir their competitors - increasing budgets and departments dealing with SEO and online marketing. Get ahead of the game and you could dominate your markets. This doesn’t just apply for larger companies either – small specialised blog and website packages for one-off optimisation are going to be widely available and cheaply too. Get in touch with Orchid Box to find out what we can do for your website – large or small...or even people!

SEO Tips for 2010 -  Search Engine Musical Chairs

Inevitably, Google is going to rule the market but we’ll see a bit of a shift over the next few months in terms of percentages. Possibly, and hopefully too for many, Bing will begin taking a bigger share of the market, even in the UK. Bing and Yahoo searches are merging together to form a super unit which will most likely see Bing take at least a 20% of the US market…whether the UK follows suit remains to be seen. We’ll also no doubt see a few extra little engines with new ideas spring up in the same way that Kosmix and co did in 2009 – and no doubt we’ll see them disappear again within a few months…not that we’re cynical or anything.

SEO Tips for 2010 – Google Domination Continues…and Spreads

Here’s an easy prediction – Google will dominate internet search engine developments, remaining at the forefront of technological innovation and increasingly monopolising the search engine world. Changes we’ll see taking hold include the rise of Google Commerce Search, ensuring all online shops have to meet Google’s demands in terms of organising and categorising their searches. We also predict the shortening of user journeys and Google begins monopolising the information market – US users are already seeing their Google boxes bringing up weather results in antipation of your queries, meaning you don’t even have to click enter; in the UK we can find country capitals and stock information immediately without entering another website. So Google will increasingly decrease traffic to information sites by making users’ lives easier, good thing or bad it’s up to you…

And on a side-note, their real-time search is a little while off being effective for now, expect to see that take a back seat shortly.

SEO Tips for 2010 – Google Maps

One good area of Google’s growth worth exploiting for all businesses is Google Maps. Local searches have always been a big part of the web – town names, countries and street names alongside a service or company name – and Google Maps is a great way to top search results without having to labour through years of SEO or high PPC cost. It still requires SEO expertise, but is an area that has not been taken over by the big guns just yet.

SEO Tips for 2010 – Conversion Rate/ROI Optimisation

Finally, a big area of development over the next year in terms of SEO is conversion rate optimisation – that is to say giving sites increasingly accurate and detailed measurable data for sales, conversions and other such metrics, so clients can push budgets into profitable areas of their site and make changes in others to measure differences in conversions. Orchid Box are already at the forefront of such changes and developments, and are working on specialised technology in terms of website optimisation and testing amongst other things. In both PPC and SEO these data metrics will be vital going into 2010 to ensure you spend to accumulate successfully in the online world!



So there we have it: a 2010 list. I’m sorry. But heed our seer-like visions and take advantage of new technologies going into 2010; get in touch with Orchid Box and we’ll help you use SEO to maximise those online profits.
 

Does Tiger Woods Need Some Orchid Box Web Marketing Help?

Are things going as off-course for you as they are for Tiger Woods? Feel like you’ve been kicked into the rough, buried in the bunkers, and half-drowned in the water hazards? Tiger for one could certainly do with some help from Orchid Box to gain him some better press.

We’d be happy to produce some quality Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Copywriting so that whenever one searches ‘Tiger Woods’, we get some positive stories about him – like the quote from one of his buxom blondes who claimed, "He came off as being a really nice person. He had manners." And he’s clearly a generous man, given that he presented the same mistress with "a ring, a pair of diamond studs and a watch". (Perhaps he used Google Commerce Search to buy these gifts from Google Store – see previous blog).

And now the contract with Accenture is over, Tiger may be looking for new ways to make some cash – Orchid Box would recommend he protects his brand name via some clever PPC Bidding to drive traffic to his website. Users are currently visiting his site for all the wrong reasons. The website in question - web.tigerwoods.com/index - has almost no SEO love and what’s more, it has been built in .Net, a very search engine unfriendly technology. Plus, Tiger last updated his blog three months ago. Tut tut.

Tiger is taking a break from golfing to spend quality time with the family. On his hiatus, we’d like to suggest that he keeps us updated with his thoughts and feelings via Twitter – his Twitter page (www.twitter.com/TigerWoods has been updated a shameful total of three times. Woods, we want more tweets, or we’ll never forgive you. He’s also been neglecting his Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Tiger), which was last updated on November 6 at 3:59pm – he is a loser in the world of social media networking.  An excellent idea would be to employ us to help put Tiger back on the radar and start rebuilding his reputation online.

Perhaps Tiger Woods is in need of a career change. We have assigned him an empty desk if he wants to do some link building or blog seeding for us - we could pair him up with our interns to learn new, useful skills in web marketing.