Google image search represents a opportunity to build traffic through Google and is especially relevant to online retailing companies.

When using images on a site, follow the following best practise to maximise the potential for image search inclusion:

• Use descriptive alt and title attribute tags for each image 
• Caption images using adjacent text for context
• Ensure image file uses a standard format with image file added with an appropriate extension, i.e. .gif, .jpeg, .png
• Use a smaller thumbnail linking to a larger image on a separate page with its own title and caption 
• Use keywords in image file names
• Enable enharnced image search in Google webmaster tools

I have had several people ask me how to get items into the Google Product search listings, so here is a quick guide.

What is Google Product Search

Google product search is Google’s shopping comparison.  Like other shopping comparison engines such as Shopping.com and kelkoo it displays a list of products based on a text search.  Unlike other shopping comparison engine, however, there is no charge to display items on Google product search (previously known a Froogle).  Google products search therefore represents a free opportunity for businesses to drive traffic to their websites.

How Results are Ordered

Google orders the results based on the relevance of a product to the user’s search query.  The results can also appear in the main Google search for relevant searches.

Getting Listed

Products are submitted to Google product search via Google Base. Google Base is Google’s service for submitting any kind of information so that it can be included in the Google search results.  

After setting up a Google Base account, products can be either submitted one at at time through a online web form or submitted in bulk via a feed file (e.g. CSV).  Details of how to submit items can be found here.

Google Base is also used for submitting information to other Google services such as Google News.

Optimising Listings

Google allows vendors to define a number of fields for each product which is submitted.  Providing full, keyword rich information in these fields will help the ranking of the products.

There are three different kinds of fields available, required fields such as price and description, recommended fields such as image and UPC (barcode) and optional fields such as age range.  Vendors should use as many of these fields as possible as this will differentiate their listings.  The feed specification can be found here.

Also remember of to add a profile of your company under the setting tab of Google Base.

Measuring Traffic

I don’t think that Google product search traffic is shown separately on Google Analytics. However, Google base does provide its own statistics on how many impressions and clicks a user’s listing recieve.

I have just written a press release for Vendlab and so I thought I would share some thoughts on writing press releases for SEO.

Online press releases should follow the format of a traditional press release i.e.

• Title. This should be be short, less than 100 characters
• Summary. A synopsis of the story. Usually 2-3 sentences
• Body. This should be around 300 words
• About the company. This is the elevator pitch for your company and should be 2-3 sentences
• Press contact details. Designate someone in your organisation as a press contact. If you are optimisating for your name, you should mention it here

First decide on the focus of your press release. This should be succinctly summarised in the title and summary paragraph. Remember many people will not get past the summary (or the title for that matter), so make sure it is compelling, jargon free and contains the vital information. Press releases are normally short, one page maximum.

The body of the press release should add flesh to the story. It is a good idea to add quotes or industry statistics as these bring the story to life and make for good copy.

Finally, include some background information on your company and a contact for extra information. Here it is vital to include a link to the company’s website. Whilst some press release websites will allow links in the copy of the release, most will only allow a single link back to the website.

Think about the style of writing when creating a press release. The release should be written in the third person.

Search Engine Optimisation of Press Releases

Deciding on Keywords

Using a tool like Google’s Keyword tool, decide on the most appropriate keyword phrases for your release. I would recommend choosing primary, secondary and tertiary phrases. These are phrases for which you wish the press release, and ultimiately your website, to be found. Phrases should be chosen based on the volume of searches and also the compatibility with your products and services

Brush up your HTML

Write the press release in plain text and also HTML, as some sites will allow HTML to be submitted. Where  HTML releases can be submitted, links can be created in the body text. When creating links use your keywords as anchor text.

Using your keywords

The title for the press release must include your primary keyphrase. If using HTML the title should be between H1 tags. The title should be short, up to 100 characters

Overall aim for 5-10% density for the primary key phrase throughout the text, and up to 5% for the secondary and tertiary.  The keyphrases should be distributed throughout the text.  As mentioned above use some of your keyphrases as links back to your site

Submitting your Press release

Here is a list of free press release services:

www.pressbox.co.uk
www.24-7pressrelease.com
www.express-press-release.net
www.free-press-release.com
www.1888pressrelease.com
www.prfree.com
www.prurgent.com
www.i-newswire.com
www.pr9.net/press
www.pr-inside.com
www.freepressreleases.co.uk
www.pressreleaseroom.com
www.ecommwire.com
www.dbusinessnews.com
www.seenation.com
www.openpr.com
www.prlog.org
www.przoom.com

Remember the press releases can also be submitted into Google News through Google Base.  If anyone knows any other sites, please let me know.

Following on from my post on local search the other day, Matt Aird from Bizwiki has kindly agreed to be interviewed for this blog.

EEL:  here do you see the local search marketplace going?

MA:  Give it another decade, and I think you will find the vast majority of local search done online, by any and whatever devices can connect to the internet. That may not mean that Yellow books cease being printed, but all signs indicate their relative decline.

I also see a huge amount of personalisation as being likely in local search, everything from devices knowing where people are geographically at the time they ask for information to suggestions based on people’s past preferences. We are currently only seeing the beginning of what can be done in this area.

EEL: What is your revenue model?

Bizwiki is entirely free to list businesses on, and offers free access to users whether for business or personal usage. We may add relevant advertising at some future stage, but at the moment the focus is on gathering and compiling gathering and compiling comprehensive local business directory for the UK.

EEL: What is your advice for building really good local search profiles

It’s increasingly important to manage a company’s image online, and to do so it’s good to be thorough. Adding your company to Bizwiki is an excellent step towards that, as it will show up on other sites including Google. When doing so, I recommend taking the time to add as much information as you can, including products and services, offered the geographic areas you work in, memberships of any industry bodies and even a bit of history about the company and the people who work there. It all adds up to a comprehensive picture that people find much more useful than just the street address or telephone number.

Here are a couple of excellent examples added recently.

http://www.bizwiki.co.uk/node/116418
http://www.bizwiki.co.uk/node/1555551

(EEL:  I have created a Bizwiki profile for Vendlab)

EEL: Any juicy industry statistics and predictions?

Over two thirds of the UK’s population uses the internet – that’s around 40 million people – and 86% of all local searches are online. A recent study by Kelsey shows that nine out of ten of these local searches result in offline activity, and half of them result in a purchase.

That means that while Youtubes and iPods and Facebooks are grabbing most of the attention online, millions upon millions of people are using the internet to find, buy, hire, rent and do things locally every day. That may not grab as many headlines, but it’s a vibrant, burgeoning market that Bizwiki is being built to help every company have a share of.#

EEL:  Final thoughts?

I believe online Local Search is going to be huge. Industry estimates show as many as 20 percent of searches are already locally oriented and this number is growing.

More and more people are using their PC to find a plumber, restaurant or product instead of digging around through their Yellow Pages book. For many people what really cements this migration from using paper to the internet is when they find there is much more information available online, and that is exactly where Bizwiki comes in.

Bizwiki.co.uk is a business Wiki, or user edited site, that invites its users to get involved and increase the information available about every company in the UK. The result is that companies can be listed with descriptions, maps, information and details far beyond just a phone number.

The company doesn’t even need to have a website of its own, and it can start getting exposure online by being included on Bizwiki -completely free of charge.

If I had two messages to send to your readers, the first would be that Local Search is important to your business. Use of search engines like Google or Yahoo and local information sites like Bizwiki and Accessplace.com to find local businesses, services and companies is only going to increase.

The second would be that getting your company listed on Bizwiki is probably the easiest way to increase your online exposure without breaking the bank. Not only will your company and products show up to the site’s own users, they will also appear in natural search and on other sites powered by Bizwiki including the extremely popular Accessplace.com and the locally-orientated TownPages.com websites.

To get started just go to Bizwiki.co.uk and search for your company and add it if it isn’t already listed. That is only the beginning though – you can add as much additional information as you like, including links to your website and email. Any changes you make will also show up on the sites it powers, making Bizwiki an ideal place to manage your online profile.

This post suggests initial steps to be taken when launching a site to ensure that the process of search engine indexing gets off to an early start.  These steps should be taken as soon as the domain has been purchased, whilst the site is in development.

Step 1. Holding Page

Google and the other major search engines take time to index a site and also take the time that a site has been active as a ranking factor.  It is therefore important to create a holding page on the chosen domain as soon as possible.

As soon as the information becomes available the <title>, Meta-tags and page content should be optimised to contain the keyphrases for the site.

Step 2. Launch Blog

It is a well know ranking factor that search engine place a premium on unique, frequently updated content.  For these reasons, as well as to introduce the people running the site to the wonderful world of blogging, a blog should be started on the domain as soon as possible.  This blog should be placed at the same URL as the final destination of the blog e.g. www.yoursite.co.uk/blog

As soon as the blog has been launched it can be added to blog search engines and directories such as Technorati and Google blog search.

Step 3. Build Incoming Links

Best practice for getting a site initially indexed by Google is to quickly build some quality incoming links.  The following are sources of quick link wins:

• Sites you already own e.g. a blog
• Supplier sites
• Business Partner sites e.g. your web developer

Step 4. Google Webmaster tools

Google webmaster tools, including Google Sitemaps, are a set of tools which allows webmasters to inform Google as to the constituent pages on their site and also provide the webmaster with information on the performance of their website e.g. number of pages indexed.  Installing Google webmaster tools on a site is an important step to getting a site indexed on Google and therefore all sites should have google webmaster code integrated from launch.

See http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Step 5. Google Analytics

All live sites should also implement Google Analytics so that we can immediately start measuring the performance of the site.
 

I have some across some interesting information recently about analysing the traffic going to competitor websites.

Firstly, Andrew Girdwood wrote an interesting post on the eConsultancy website on the matter – Andrew is head of Search at Big Mouth Media, a leading SEO company so probably know what he is talking abou.

Secondly, was just looking on the TechCrunch website and found a post on an interesting new service call Xinu which shows all the publically available info about a website in one place

Consumers are increasingly turning to search engines such as Google and Yahoo as a convenient and quick way of finding products and services. Fifty percent of online purchases start with an online search and the market is growing by 30% per year representing a huge opportunity to drive traffic to your website, increase sales and acquire customers.

To get significant clicks, your pages will need to appear high up in search results, preferably on the first page. The process of organizing your website so that it appears prominently in the results of searches relevant to your products is known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

Many companies underestimate the potential of SEO. However, using some simple techniques it is possible for even organizations with a limited budget to improve their performance.

How Search Engines Rank Web pages

The inner workings of search engines can seem mysterious. However, whilst they have complex and constantly evolving systems for producing their results, there are two fundamental sets of factors which their software considers when ranking sites.

On-Page Optimization. To produce their results search engines create a database of the content contained on millions of web pages. When performing a search, the search engines use the position and frequency of the words on the pages to judge how relevant the page is to that search. Pages which feature the search terms more prominently will rank more highly in the results.

Link-building. Search engines consider each link from another web page as a vote for that page. For any given search, pages which have more links will rank higher. It is not just the quantity but also the quality of links which is important. For example, a link from www.bbc.co.uk carries more weight than that from www.trevorginn.com (unfortunately).
How to Optimize Your Website

Step 1: Research Keywords

Keyword research and selection is core to success in SEO. Start off by making a list of the areas of your website to which you would like to drive traffic. For each of these areas brainstorm the phrases which your customers might use if they wished to find your services. To help you find keywords you can use tools such as Yahoo’s keyword tool (http://inventory.uk.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion ), Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com ), your competitors websites and if available, information from your weblog.

When you have built your list, select 2-3 key phrases for each page you wish to optimize. Choose phrases which you think will drive targeted traffic to your website but be careful not to choose phrases which are too generic or too popular. For example, there will be fierce competition to rank highly for the word insurance. However, a more specific phrase such as flood insurance will be less competitive and bring more targeted traffic.

More info:
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Choosing-Keywords-Help/

Step 2: Eliminate Barriers to Indexing

If a search engine cannot read your site, then no matter how relevant your content, you will never appear in the search results. Search engines have difficulty reading sites which make use of frames/tables, flash, javascript and content management systems. To find out how many pages in your site Google has indexed type site:yoursite.com into the search bar. If significant pages are missing you may have to review how your site is constructed.

More info:
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Search-Engine-Spiders-Help/

Step 3: On Page Optimization Factors

The frequency, position and emphasis of the key phrases on your site are very important for optimization. The challenge is to produce copy which reads well and also contains your relevant keywords. The following is a list of important factors:

• Keyword frequency. Repeat your keywords throughout your page. To do this you can vary the usage of the keywords e.g. eBay store, eBay stores, eBay stores in the UK
• Position. It is best to position your keywords in the first and last paragraphs
• Emphasis. Include the keywords in your page headings and use bolding in the text
• Tags. The Title tag on a webpage is the most important factor in optimizing a webpage and so it should contain your most important keywords for that page
• Repetition. A keyword will hold more weight if it is included in several areas of the page including the title tag, page content and the URL.

In addition to optimizing current content, consider creating new content for your site. This could take the form of new pages for your products, guides, press releases or a blog. Remember that good quality content will attract visitors.

More Info:
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Google-Optimization-Help/
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/

Step 4: Off-Page Optimization Factors

One of the reasons for the dramatic growth of the Internet is the ease with which related sites and pages within sites can link to each other. Search engines use the number of links to a page as an indication of the importance of a page. All other things being equal, for a given search phrase, the page with the most links will get the highest position in the search engine results. It is therefore important to increase the number of links to your site to improve your rankings. There are six main strategies for increasing links:

1. Natural link-building through quality content. Sites with good quality content will naturally receive links from other sites whose owners believe the linked content is a good resource for their visitors.
2. Requesting inbound-only links. Enter your site into online directories and ask your business partners, clients and staff to link to your site.
3. Reciprocal linking. Requesting link exchanges with other websites to build the number of links to your site.
4. Creating your own internal links. Creating links between your internal pages contributes to their rankings.
5. Generating a buzz through PR. Submit press releases and articles to relevant websites

More info:
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Web-Directories/
http://www.seochat.com/c/b/Link-Trading-Help/
http://www.toprankblog.com/2005/10/lowdown-on-press-release-optimization/

Step 5: Monitor, Monitor, Monitor

It is important to monitor the traffic to your site to see where your visitors are coming from and what search phrases they are using. This information can then be used to refine your site. Google provides a free tracking system called Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics ) and there are also other free services such as Statcounter (www.statcounter.com ).

This Article originally appeared in Auctionbytes

I have recently placed our companies on Google Maps and I have made some interesting observations on how to optimise this service

Optimising Keywords

It would seem on Google Maps that their is no limit to how long the company name can be. It is therefore possible to add keywords to the title which will be found by Google search. Here is an example. Imagine you run a recruitment agency for actors called Cast in London. You could give your company’s entry in Google Maps the title

Cast

and place it in the recruitment category Which will ensure that it turns up for searches for recruitment in London. Alternatively you could give it the title

Cast – Actors Recruitment Agency

Which will mean that it will also turn up for searches on these extra keywords

Adding multiple services

To optimise how you are found, you could list multiple entries for your company on Google Maps for the different services you provide. Imagine that our fictional agency also recruits for singers and directors. You could then create two additional entries for your company e.g.

Cast – Singers Recruitment Agency

Cast – Directors Recruitment Agency

Enabling you to appear in extra search results.