Friday 19 September 2008

Checking the Search Results

It can be quite frustrating checking keywords! Every day I come into work and end up searching in Google for the same keywords!

Some examples of keywords that I check on a regular basis are:

B&B Derbyshire
Learn Russian
Mortgage Advice Nottingham
Debt Advice Nottingham
B&B Chesterfield
Chilled Couriers
Midlands Team Building
Mansfield Paintball
Quad Biking Midlands
Open Gardens Derbyshire
Hotel near Derby
Beaver Castle

One that will soon be added to the list is Nottingham Marathon - for my new blog that I'm working on at the moment!

It’s important to regularly check keywords to monitor how they are performing in the search engine results. Any SEO work we have done on our clients sites can then be assessed more accurately. It is interesting how quickly some work we do can effect the rankings for some clients!

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Lost in the Jungle!

adrenalin jungleThis morning I have spent some time working on one of our clients sites, the Adrenalin Jungle website. The company have three websites in total: the Adrenalin Jungle, Paintball Jungle and the Corporate Jungle – plus the Jungle Blog too!

Over the last few months there seems to have been a big rise in the number of sites who are competing for some of the Adrenalin Jungle keywords. For example, if you search in Yahoo for “Paintball Nottingham” (a keyword that they have ranked number 1 for the past year) the Paintball Jungle site is currently ranked in around 5th position behind several sites which have appeared. This must show the advantage that can be achieved by using keyword rich URLs

The Adrenalin Jungle site uses our Web Manager 2 CMS. The system makes it easy for their staff to update and make changes to the site. It can cause some problems though - when pages are deleted or changed some of the links on the pages will no longer work. This can have an effect on the SEO for the site, one month the rankings for the Go Karting Nottingham fell drastically, and this was after the page had been renamed! Today I went through the site ensuring all of their keyword text links go through to the correct pages. I have also updated the xml sitemaps, to make sure that any new pages are included.

The Corporate Entertainment website has only been around for a few months. They are currently finalising and adding content to some of the pages, something that can often take much longer than clients anticipate! We have started the SEO work on the site, optimising for keyword such as teambuilding, team building activities, outdoor team building and corporate entertainment midlands.

If you think that your online presence could be improved, or if you have any questions about search engine optimisation, web design or pay per click management then give Metafocus a call on 0115 947 0011

Our Progress with Bournes Debt Solutions

bournes bebt solutions

One of our clients came into the office yesterday to arrange a meeting about expanding her website. The website is for a company who specialise in debt solutions for people who need help to rectify their financial problems.

Bournes Debt Solutions can help with any debt related issues such as

Debt Management Plans
Debt Solutions
Charging Orders
Basic Bank Accounts
Consumer Credit Agreements
County Court Judgments

The site has been live for nearly a year and the SEO and online marketing is really starting to have a positive effect. The debt solutions market is very competitive with lots of other sites competing for the same keywords.

Since working on the site our approach has been revised several times. The keywords for which we optimise the site have been reviewed and also the methods used to promote the site have also changed.

In the past we used PPC to promote Bournes and their services. The competition for the keywords was high, with some of the keywords costing upwards of £10 per click! The PPC was effective at driving traffic to the site, but the number of real enquiries was quite low and it was very expensive!

Optimising the site for general terms such as bankruptcy or credit advice is not a realistic approach. At the moment, the domain and site are still quite young so we are currently focussing on a more localised and targeted approach by optimising for keywords such as debt advice Nottingham and charging orders nottingham. In the future, as the site matures and the number of relevant inbound links increase, the site will be able to compete alongside some of the bigger sites in the industry.

The meeting next week will be a good opportunity to review the work on the site and plan for the next six months.