News and articles you will probably find helpful from The Aberdeen SEO, internet marketing, social media and marketing experts.

Is Twitter Worth it?

95 million Tweets a Day

Let’s start with some numbers, Twitter is BIG. As of 14 September 2010 Twitter has 175 million registered users, 95 million tweets are written every day. Some people tweet multiple times every day from computers, mobile apps etc, some share lots of trivial information such as where they are, what they are doing, eating, the weather etc. Do we really need to know all this, or are some people on Twitter just attention seekers?

Some people however never tweet at all. So do you have to tweet to get value from Twitter? Well no, even if you don’t tweet you can still get access to voices and information about the things that interest you. You can contribute, or just listen in, you don’t have to participate. But the old adage still applies, the more you give, the more you are likely to receive.

Is Twitter for Businesses?

So is Twitter useful for businesses? How do businesses use Twitter for marketing? Businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, to gather real-time market intelligence, research and customer feedback, and to build relationships with customers, prospects, suppliers, and potential partners. Twitter gives businesses the chance to reach an engaged audience.

Twitter themselves publish a very useful guide to doing business on Twitter, it is called Twitter 101 for Businesses, you can get a copy free of charge from this link: http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/

Is Twitter Worth it?

The answer depends on what you are trying to achieve, although Twitter is free it requires an investment of time to maximise the return. You may also need training in how to use Twitter effectively. But, there are some great examples of businesses that have embraced Twitter and made it a highly effective marketing channel for their business.

Get in touch with Ken Sturgeon today if you want more help with this.

Longtail keywords – what are they and what monthly search volume should I target?

 Longtail keywords?

These are simply longer keyword phrases that people type into Google, Yahoo, and Bing, which you believe you can achieve a page 1 listing for. They should have a worthwhile search volume (potential traffic to your website) but often have low competition. There is also evidence that the longer the keyword phrase, the more precise the search, and the more committed the searcher may be to finding a solution and perhaps making a purchase. People type in longer keywords when they know what they are looking for.

So, what monthly search volume should I target?

This really depends on your niche market and how competitive it is. You also need to consider the value of a sale or enquiry to you if your site gets ranked. For example, slickline services (used in the oil and gas industry) have a high potential enquiry and sales value if you can get ranked for some longtail related keywords, these services range from £50,000 to several £million!!

As a rule I go for a minimum of 1,000 exact searches per month using the Google Keyword Tool. Please note I am using exact search volumes here, not broad or phrase. If you don’t know the difference between these terms then just ‘Google’ them.

The profit is in the longtail keywords, you will get a lower search volume but typically will get higher conversions, it will cost you less on PPC, and it will be easier and quicker to get high ranking pages on Google!!

How many keywords should you optimise your website for?

I get asked this question lots, so let’s deal with the theory and practical realities of SEO for small as well as larger businesses.

The purpose of SEO is to get a lot of new customers through high rankings on Google and other search engines. If you have taken the time to find the best keywords for your website, you probably have a very long list with many keywords.

How do you add that list to your website and what is the right number of keywords per page?

 Your home page is not your website: you have many pages

Many people try to optimise their home page (which is the index page of a website) for every possible keyword. That is not a good idea.

A single web page should not be optimised for more than one keyword. The keyword can consist of several words, for example "buy inexpensive running shoes".

If your homepage has been optimized for 'buy inexpensive running shoes" then you should not optimise it for another keyphrase.

It's much better if a web page is highly relevant to one keyword than somewhat relevant to many search terms. If you concentrate on one keyphrase per page then it is much more likely that your web page will get a top listing on Google for that search term.

But, the reality of many websites and small businesses is that they need to target more than one keyword, that’s fine, but ‘less is more’.

Use one page for one keyword to get targeted website visitors

If you also want to get high rankings for your other keywords such as "white running shoes", "shoe shop" or "running equipment" then you should optimise other pages of your website for these keywords.
If a web surfer searches for "white running shoes" then a web page on your site that is all about white running shoes will convert much better than a page that is about running shoes, running equipment, the latest running news and running clubs. It's nice to have these items on your website but they should be on separate pages.

Optimise different pages of your website for different keywords and you will get the best results with each keyword.

How to optimize a web page for your chosen keyword

When you optimise a web page for a keyword, it's important that the right elements of your web page contain the keyword in the right frequency. The easiest way to optimise a web page for a keyword is to use an SEO Specialist.

They have access to tools and data that will make the task much easier. You can try to do it yourself (see other articles on this website) but an SEO Professional will get you the results you need much quicker, and you can focus on growing your business.

What rules do we apply for SME Businesses in Scotland (and beyond)?

Target 6-10 maximum keywords (read keyphrases) for a Home Page, around 6 maximum for an inside page/section, if you can, go for one keyword target only per page. This is the ideal, compromise is possible, it depends on how competitive your market is online, but the old adage still applies, ‘less is more’.