Savvy Marketers Tips - Issue 8 August 2009
Hello <<First Name>>
Welcome to this issue of 'Savvy Marketing Tips' and to more new subscribers!
Each month we bring you easy to implement tools and tips for your small business, so you can take advantage of the many brilliant low-cost ways of marketing via the internet. We hope you will find our newsletter a welcome and useful addition to your inbox. If you do, please tell others about us so we can reach more people!
Best wishes,
Sam & Louise
the Savvy Marketers
More Savvy Tips from our Blog
 Don't forget to check the blog for more tips, tools, and up-to-the minute news about life on the web.
Recent Posts:
Why Bing is Important
How to Keep Your Readers Happy
Content for Content's Sake
Outdated SEO Practices
Friends & Acquaintances
Link Building Ideas
Feature Article: Back to Basics SEO
This month we're looking at the basics of search engine optimization (or SEO) as we know it’s something many businesses get confused about and there’s plenty of conflicting information out there!
So what is search engine optimisation?
SEO is the process whereby web pages are indexed and ranked by the search engines so that they appear in the search results when a query relevant to the content of the page is submitted. There are a lot of factors involved in ranking web pages (also known as the search engines’ algorithm), many of these factors SEO professionals don’t know as it’s proprietary information to the search engines. However, we do know certain factors which work, and by using these in website optimization, we’re giving the pages the best chance of ranking well.
SEO looks at the design of a website, the content on the pages, linking structure, meta data and external factors such as links. The most basic part of SEO is actually getting the web pages indexed by the search engines, whereby the pages are put into the search engines’ databases. The next part is gaining rankings, which is the difficult part!
How do you present your website in the search engines?
One of the most important things you need to consider when your site is being built, let alone the marketing of it afterwards, is how the pages of your site are presented in the search engines. This is really important as it can dictate whether someone clicks on your link or on someone else’s in the search results.
There are two tags which search engines use when presenting web pages: the title tag and the meta description tag (see example below).The title tag is one of the most important tags in SEO, not only does it play a part in the ranking of a web page, but is also the clickable link in the search results. The tag is seen on the website at the top of the browser bar as well as in the search results. Bearing in mind it influences rankings, it needs to contain target keywords for that particular web page.
The meta description tag won’t actually influence rankings but is the description that goes below the clickable link (title tag) in the search results, so needs to be a good description of the page that the visitor will land on when they click on the link. If it’s badly written then it may discourage someone from clicking on the link. The meta description tag is not visible to visitors to the web page as it’s hidden in the html code.
Both the title tag and meta description tag need to reflect the content of the web page, so will therefore be unique to each page. Don’t copy the same title and meta description tag across the whole website.
The keyword research you carry out for the products and services on your website will determine which keywords you will target on your website, so it’s best to write your title and meta description tags once you’ve decided which keywords you want to target on each of your pages. These factors alone won’t provide high rankings for your website, it all depends on how well your site has been built (hopefully there aren’t any technical problems with it), which sites are linking to your website, how proactive you are at promoting it and adding fresh content, what other marketing activities are included in your marketing mix.
So where do you go from here? If you’ve not optimized your website, or you don’t think it’s up to scratch, then do some keyword research (try the Google Adwords keyword research tool), and identify which keywords are suitable to target for your pages. Then ensure your keywords are written into your content and title & meta description tags!
Got a Topic Idea?
 We'd love to hear it! Just get in touch and let us know what Internet Marketing topic you'd like to know more about.
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Pssst...Pass It On!
If you know anyone who might be interested in reading 'Savvy Marketing Tips' please feel free to forward this copy to them. Or tell them to visit http://www.savvymarketers.co.uk and get their copy of 'The Ultimate Small Business Guide to Marketing via the Internet'
Savvy Marketing Tips are brought to you by the Savvy Marketers, who are Sam McArthur and Louise Barnes-Johnston. We offer no-fluff, low cost, extremely valuable how-to information about marketing via the internet for the small business owner who has little or no prior experience.
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