Google recently introduced a new feature to their search interface called ‘Search, plus your world’. It’s the latest in a fairly long, yet recent, line of updates to push the search giant’s social network, the feedback is mixed.

The feature will only be present for those who have and are signed into a Google+ account, when this is the case, the search experience will differ by

• Showing user profiles in drop down search bar
• Returning more personalised results relevant to your history
• Increasing links to prominent Google+ profiles
• Linking to profiles related to search query
• SSL security to all signed in users

There has been the usual SEO industry uproar about how “SEO is Dead” again but that’s common for any significant update that effects the results returned for any search. There has been increasing evidence over the past couple of years to suggest that social networks are impacting search results more and more, now Google has cemented this theory but with their own network. There is no doubt that a user could receive better results if they were personally tailored to them but since Google+ isn’t the only social network people user (and certainly not the most popular), how can it really benefit the user.

The common criticism of this latest change is that Google is making use of its industry leading search product, to promote another, its social network. Users are feeling that their use of the web is being restricted to the services provided exclusively by Google, with other offerings such as Facebook and Twitter being ignored all together.

There is also the impact on SEO, as usual the update is intended to provide better results, but are the best results really so reliant on data from one of the least used social networks? Will websites lose out on clicks even if they naturally rank 1st if above them lies several Google+ pages? Another implication of the update is that the search data for every user that’s logged in will not contribute to keyword data available on Google Keyword Tool, possibly the most important tool for SEO keyword research. If we cannot see this data we will not know which keywords are the most popular and therefore what to optimise for!

Anyway, as it is early days for Search plus your world, we must give it time and wait to see what effects it has on the use of the search engine, search results and SEO. Stay tuned for updates.

Pixel8’s SEO Consultants in Manchester started working out on the UK Fitness Network website on 26^th. February 2010. By 28^th. May, search engine visitors had increased by 61% compared with the previous 12 weeks, which included the January rush of people searching online for exercise classes and gym memberships to fulfil their New Years resolutions.

Google visitors were up by 55% from 3,421 to 5,329 over the three month period, Yahoo! and Bing visitors increased by 255% and 40% respectively.

The initial SEO updates Pixel8 exercised on the website included pumping some iron into the website content, giving the News section a makeover, and doubling the SEO capabilities of the hundreds of not-for-profit leisure centres which are listed on the website.

Since the leisure centre updates were implemented, many of the leisure centre pages have realised a 100% increase in visitors, and Google visitors from the keyword phrase: leisure centres in London – has increased by 1,000%. The website is currently number one in Google UK for: exercise classes London.

David Hopkins, who administers the UK Fitness Network website on behalf of Proleisure said, “I was very impressed with how quickly Pixel8’s SEO team got up to speed on the project, and again by the speed at which the copywriting and web development updates were completed and put live. The increase in visitors to the website and the exposure for our leisure centre partners is fantastic.”

The UK Fitness Network is a charitable not-for-profit organisation owned by its partner members in London, Surrey, West Sussex, Oxon, Oxford, Buckinghamshire, Kent and Hertfordshire.

UKFN members can use hundreds of different gyms, fitness centres, swimming pools and take thousands of exercise classes using one membership card.

For complete details please visit the UK Fitness Network

In addition to providing web design services for the Tullis Russell Group, we also provide web hosting and website support services.

Part of this work has recently involved updating their website with additional product information and stockist information. We also carry out routine maintenance on their Linux web server including downloading and installing the latest server software updates and patches. We now also provide Google analytics consultancy.

We look forward to our continuing our web support services for Tullis Russell in 2010 and to increasing visitors to their website through our search engine optimisation (SEO) and SEO copywriting services.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) gives us the ability to get websites found for many different keywords phrases on the natural (or organic) search engine results pages. Google, Yahoo! & Bing prioritise websites based on what they see, and SEO allows us to help the search engines to give our websites better rankings in their search results.

Why create an SEO strategy?

Like anything, if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen! Strategy is about aligning everything that we do towards a common goal and this philosophy has never been more relevant. We only have a finite amount of time and resource for SEO, therefore it’s essential that we’re clear about what we want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it.

It’s simply not realistic to want to be number 1 in Google for highly competitive keywords quickly, so initially we look for long tail keyword phrases that include the top performing keywords. By being realistic we are much more likely to generate traffic and revenues quicker, as we work towards achieving top search engine results for the best performing keyword phrases.

Steps to an SEO strategy

1. Keyword Discovery and Research

This involves finding and understanding the keywords and phrases that potential customers are using to find your product or service. Viewing competitor websites and understanding the keywords that they are trying to be found for is a good start.

2. Keyword Priority

Now that we have a list of keywords and phrases, we need to prioritise and categorise them. We now need to assess, commercially, which keywords and phrases are most important to be found for. This should be based on the competencies and overall objectives of your business.

3. Long Tail Phrase Development

Once we have prioritised the list, we can start to assess the competition for each term and increase the focus by adding related keywords. This may be by geographical location or by a more specific description of the product or service.

4. Website Development

Before starting any SEO strategy we need to answer some technical questions about the website. Can the web pages be found and indexed by the search engines? Is the website easy to search? Is the website tuned for your SEO priorities? Does the navigation reflect the keywords that you want the website to be found for?

5. Optimising Website Content

Now that we are focussed on the keywords and phrases that we want the website to be found for, we can write textual content that targets the keywords and phrases. Content includes the on-page text that visitors and search engines can read, and also the web page Title Tags and Meta Tags which are crucial for SEO. In most cases, the text in the Title Tags and Meta Tags is displayed in the search engine results. In other words, we control what people read in the search engines, so we can influence people to visit “our” website.

6. Link Building

Google wants to be assured that your website is more relevant than all the others for the keywords that are being searched for. One way Google does this is to measure the relevance of the external links that are pointing to the website / web pages. The best quality links are from related-content websites, authority websites and respected blogs and social media sites. Whilst the best things in life are free, the best quality links aren’t!

Internal website links are often overlooked but are important as they help search engines to easily find other pages on the website.

7. Reviewing

We need to take a snap shot on a regular basis to ensure that we are following the original strategy, or that we are consciously making decisions to change it based on the ever moving feast. There are a host of useful tools including Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to help with this. Setting key performance indicators (kpi’s) really drives our understanding of the market and our position within it.

If you’d like to know more about developing successful SEO strategies for your business website, please call the SEO consultants at Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 / 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

BDI Home Finders UK selected Manchester based SEO Agency Pixel8 to manage their search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns on a three month trial basis.

The initial SEO campaign targets people who are looking to find, buy or to let a luxury property in the best areas of London or in the South East of England.

BDI Home Finders have an extensive network of house hunters in central London and across the Home Counties. They provide clients with considerable expertise not only in finding luxury homes, but their property buying and negotiating expertise can ensure that their clients pay the lowest price and get the best overall deal. For more information please visit BDI Home Finders UK.

When Pixel8 won this opportunity, their SEO consultants quickly completed the initial research and analysis then added new keyword-rich text to several pages on the BDI Home Finders website, to target specific areas of London. New Title and Meta Tags were implemented onto 17 pages within a week, and then a related-content link building process began.

Google indexed the SEO updates to the BDI Home Finders website within a week. Since then the website has achieved No. 1 and top 5 Google listings for a wider variety of targeted keywords and phases. If you’d like to know the exact keywords and phases that the website is ranking for please contact us and we’ll be more that happy to show you.

To learn more about our search engine optimisation services, please visit SEO or call the Pixel8 SEO consultants in Manchester on 0161 228 6489, 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

On 1^st. June 2009 the search engine optimisation (SEO) specialists at Pixel8 in Manchester started providing SEO services for the Manchester Sport and Leisure Trust website. The Trust manages nineteen sports facilities and leisure centres in Manchester including the world-class Manchester Aquatics Centre.

On 8^th. July 2009 visitors to the website reached an all time high.

Google visitors to the Trusts’ website from April 18 to May 31 totalled 4,557
Google visitors to the Trusts’ website from June 1 to July 14 totalled 8,687

The white-hat (ethical) SEO strategies that Pixel8’s SEO team implemented also increased visitors to the Trusts’ website from Yahoo! natural search by 65.62%, and AOL organic visitors increased by 165.52%.

The purpose of the initial SEO campaign was to increase the number of visitors to the Swimming, Gym and Membership sections of the Trusts’ website.

For the period June 14 – July 14 compared to May 14 – June 13:

Visitors to the Swimming Lessons page were up by 155.76%

Visitors to the Swim Free page were up by 40.04%

Visitors to the Swimming Activities page were up by 22.53%

Visitors to the Gyms page were up by 13.32%

Visitors to the Memberships page were up by 62.45%

Shaun Brennan, the Commercial Manager for the Manchester Sport and Leisure Trust said, “I’m really pleased with the SEO work that Pixel8 have delivered to date and the impact this is having on visitors to the website. Long may it continue!”

Pixel8 Account Director Jamie Watson said, “We’re pleased that our initial SEO strategies had a quick positive effect in the natural search engine results pages. We’re now working on the second phase of the SEO campaign for the Trust, and we expect to show equally impressive SEO results for the other sections of their website”.

For information please visit SEO. To find out what Pixel8 SEO can do for your website, please call our SEO consultants  in Manchester on 0161 228 6489, 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

This week we had something to really smile about, as we will once again be working with one of the UK’s top dental experts Dr. Paul Tipton.

Tipton Training have asked us to design a new logo, create a new website design with search engine optimisation (SEO) and to design new print materials including business stationery and marketing leaflets.

Based on our previous successful creative graphic design work we carried out for Paul whilst at St. Ann’s Dental, it’s a job we’re really looking forward to sinking our teeth in to!