The rule of thumb, prior to a very recent update from Google’s search supremo Max Cutts, was that a page could only really sustain 100 links.

Now, following the Cutts clarification in a Google webmasters video, the situation appears a little clearer.

The good news is that Google is no longer hung up on the amount of links that any one page can have. Indeed, the old guideline of 100 links only, was thrown out of the window prior to 2008. The bad news is that if Google thinks that the links are spammy then, uh oh, you’ll get hit.

Which, when you think of it, has a certain sense of logic. Google is on the warpath against any site which does not offer a rich user experience and that means listening to their mantra of quality and relevance. If you fill your site with anything spammy, from links through to content, then you will be punished by Google.

There were thousands of sites with more than 100 links on their home page and as many SEO consultancy experts figured out, they survive and prosper. So the 100 link theory didn’t hold water anyway.

But in a rare explanation which involves finite figures, Cutts has now cleared up this tricky question. You can have more than 100 links on any one page, but woe betide if they are spammy.

Now, the focus has shifted to what is spammy. And if you’re stuck with that, perhaps you’ll need some help!

The post SEO Update: How Many Links Am I Allowed On One Page? appeared first on Cayenne Red.

If you’ve been using remarketing as part of your AdWords strategy, then you it’s likely you will have seen the benefits it brings to your conversion rates and how easy it is to keep your messages in front of your target audience.

However, you will also know that implementing Remarketing doesn’t guarantee an increase sales and you may pay twice to acquire the same customer. So you will never know if the person you are targeting was ever going to come back to your website and convert anyway. This is one of its downsides and for many websites, the conversion may take place months later which means your Ads don’t have an additive effective on your visitor.

Despite this, Google Remarketing has tons of benefits and they include easy setup and a CPC pricing model that is easy to manage. It also allows you to reach a wider audience within the Google network and management of remarketing is within the same interface as your Google search and display networks.

According to Google, Remarketing can radically improve your ROI and one of its key benefits is the ability to keep your brand at the top of the minds of your visitors when they are ready to buy.  You can use various targeting methods that include interest categories, demographics and even keyword campaigns.

In this post we will be talking about tips that you need to undertake to make remarketing successful for your organisation:

Get at least 100 visitors

Before you can commence a remarketing campaign, you will need to have at least 100 people in your list and the sooner you get the code installed on your site, the quicker you will be able to start building your list. Even if your campaign start date is later, you can still install the code because lists take a long take time to build so implementing the code early will give you a good head start.

Use the Google Analytics code only

Installing remarketing in the early days was a time consuming process and the only way to install it was via AdWords. A separate piece of code had to be installed to each page of a site in order to build lists. Then Google released an update that allowed advertisers to make a change in the Analytics code which was to be implemented across the website.

However, many advertisers who did this still left the AdWords code on their websites alongside the Analytics code. So it is important to run only one code and because Analytics provides you with more flexibility, it is the code we recommend.

Refine websites showing your Ads

One of remarketing’s compelling features is the ability to see sites your Ads are running on and you can utilise this information to refine continuously where Google is placing your adverts as well as find better sites that will work harder for your business. You can see this data by going to the Display Network field and then selecting the sub tab for Placements. By continuously refining sites in your list, you will managing your account much easier and will get better results from your campaign.

Written by Cayenne Red, a digital marketing agency uk. Cayenne Red specialise in PPC, SEO, Web Design and Development, Affiliate Management & Social Marketing.

The post Tips to successfully using Remarketing with Google AdWords and Analytics appeared first on Cayenne Red.

Negative SEO is the practice of using discredited or black hat techniques against your website by a competitor or other rival. Since the Google Penguin update of 2012, the focus of huge linking campaigns has shifted from promoting a website to causing harm to competitor sites through a very underhand but still common practice of creating hundreds of irrelevant links so Google penalises the attacked website and drops it’s ranking in the Search Engines.

Run a Backlink Audit and Disavow bad links

A regular audit should now be a part of any SEO campaign. Backlinks can be simply downloaded from your Google Webmaster account, then analysed for suspicious and outdated links. The owner of the originating site can be contacted to remove the link and/or the Google Disavow Link Tool can be utilised to disavow and negate the effect of poor quality links.

Look out for links from:

• Sites that are not indexed in Google
• Link or article directories (but not all are bad)
• Sites which are virus infected or have malware
• Paid links, those with a high PR ranking can be paid links and are ones to watch
• Site’s with irrelevant titles, if the title and subject don’t match it could be a sign of a problem

Find out more on uncovering a back link attack at Search Engine Watch

Do be a little careful though as Google warns us to use Disavow Links with “caution” as it “can potentially harm you site’s performance in Google’s search results” it may also take some time as your site is re crawled and re indexed by Google and your ranking set back to where it should be if you have been affected. If you are disavowing poor links and contacting webmasters one by one you may find the process a little frustrating too.

If you are not currently working with SEO specialists now may be the time to employ a good SEO consultant as SEO techniques and challenges have changed dramatically in the past 18 months, and you may need that extra advice from an expert firm.

Can I protect my website?

Actually yes and no, no because there is no method in place for preventing negative backlink attacks and controversially Google’s only aid so far is the Disavow Links Tool, which has been reported not to work and can take some time. It also does not protect against repeat attacks so a regular Backlink audit must be essential.

However yes you can protect your website by ensuring that the SEO consultant, firm or techniques you use are current and reputable methods and you have an overall goal of providing natural, quality content. If you have a well optimised site with a healthy backlink profile and good domain authority you should survive all but the most insistent of attackers.

Attributed to Cayenne Red.  Cayenne Red is a Digital Marketing Agency specialising in Bespoke Web Design, SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing Management & Social Media Marketing.

The post Negative SEO – What should you or your SEO consultant do about it? appeared first on Cayenne Red.

SEO is a fast moving sector and Google’s frequent algorithm changes make it difficult for some businesses to get a grip of what they need to do to get ahead. For many though, getting higher in the search ranks may be as easy as altering their page title tags.

Many people seem to neglect page tags or page title tags when working on the SEO of a site or creating an SEO how-to guide. This article misses nothing out yet doesn’t blind you with science (or bore you will long-winded explanations).

What is a Page Title Tag?

The page title tag are keywords that appear in the header of each and every website page.

Why is a Page Title Tag so Important?

As part of an SEO campaign, the page title tag often proves very useful to those in SEO. The page title tag includes keywords relating the topic, aim or theme of each page and if properly optimised increases the chances of the site being more highly ranked and therefore more visible.

Valuable inclusion within Back Links

Backlinks are a tried, tested and frequently used method of increasing visibility; particularly when linking with high ranking and relevant sites. When websites create a hyperlink which leads to your web page they often link using your page title tag as the anchor text. If your SEO expert is looking to fully cash in on this then they may be looking at how important keywords are when used within the page title tag.

Ensure you include your keywords and your business name

Points to consider here are having a business name with the keywords within them, ensuring that if keywords are to appear in a title tag that they appear at the beginning of the tag rather than the end and to consider amalgamating two keywords in one to make the best of a tagline search as “IT Development, IT service | Joe’s business”

Being Specific 

Page title tags add more specific information about the type and purpose of your site which makes it easier for Google to rank it properly and those looking for your product or service to find you. Remembering to be specific, so using “SEO Berkshire | Cayenne Red” rather than “welcome”, “About us” or similar will make a big difference to how your site is ranked.

CayenneRed is a Digital Marketing agency specialising SEO, PPC, Social Marketing, affiliate marketing & Web Design

The post An Introduction to Page Title Tags appeared first on Cayenne Red.

There’s no point in having an impressive website with great content and a range of services or products laid out for your potential customer if they don’t know you exist. Visibility is key when it comes to increasing sales or referrals and so your SEO efforts are crucial.

Running a business is expensive however these five brilliant tools will not only help with SEO, they are also free.

1. Open Site Explorer

Open Site from SEOMOZ is a back-link investigator. Google place a fair amount of importance on back links when ranking a site therefore it is important that not only do you have them, that you have the right ones.

The aim as far as SEO is concerned is to gain genuine back links from sites which rank well themselves and where possible are found within your own niche, though are not in direct competition obviously. These relevant links are what make all of the difference. Open Site allows you to view links (your own and your competitors), enables you to assess how your back links are helping with your SEO efforts and of course enables you to make more informed choice regarding who to link to / with.

2.Rank Checker

Rank checker will enable you to see where your site ranks for certain keyword searches and similarly how your competitors rank for the same or similar. This information is great for choosing keywords and assessing performance.  Assessing performance in terms of SEO will enable you put in place plans for future SEO campaigns and to know when to ditch something that clearly isn’t working as effectively as you might have hoped which will clearly what is SEO.

3.Google Adwords

The Google Adwords Tool enables you to find relevant keywords to your business or niche and to ensure that you are using keywords that your potential customers are searching for. Using relevant keywords properly will enable Google to rank you properly, taking into account your sector or area of interest.

4.Meta Tag Analyzer

If set up properly your website will have meta tags (a kind of html tag) inserted into the pages. This further enables Google to index your pages and your site properly. The Meta tag Analyzer will assess any tags of any sort across the site and show you what isn’t working or is being used incorrectly. These may then be rectified either by yourself or by whoever is responsible for your web design.

5. Google Alerts

Google alerts may be sent to email you when it notices something that hits Google which matches your inputted search term. This will give you a better insight into what people are searching for when looking for anything relevant your business, will let you see how people are finding your competitors and will also aid you in regards to fine-tuning your SEO efforts.

The post 5 Free Tools To Help You with SEO appeared first on Cayenne Red.

Internet shopping has boomed over the years and as every good UK SEO consultant knows, getting ecommerce platforms ship shape for the Christmas shopping frenzy is a major task which can start as early as the summer.

But, whist the legit SEO teams sharpen their keyboards and brain; the nefarious hackers are never far behind.

Indeed, suffice to say that the average cyber criminal is quite an accomplished SEO expert and will likely be up to speed on all the latest techniques. And they will have one objective in mind, to sit on the terms that people use at Christmas.

For cyber criminals, Christmas is an absolute joyous time. There are many ways they try to ensnare people at Christmas, but for many, it’s a simple case of getting the SEO right. And this is how it goes.

They invest in a domain name website that looks almost identical to say a well known retailer. They then start an SEO campaign (mostly black hat) which targets keywords associated with the retailer. If the search requests are big enough, they might decide to SEO spelling mistakes which thousands of people make looking for the right keyword. And the retailer wouldn’t always think to target the mis-spelt keyword.

But low and behold, those who tap in the misspelt word, see the bogus domain and website on the top of the search listings, click onto the site and are sucked into purchasing something they’ll never see and at the same time parting with their personal and banking ids. It’s easily done.

And that, gives SEO consultants a major headache.

The post No Christmas Joy for SEO Consultancy appeared first on Cayenne Red.

But the Holy Grail within this technique is only using sites with a high page rank, or as it’s known, PR.

The trouble is of course, like celebrity endorsements, these are not easy to come by. I occasionally have a laugh by going onto a popular freelance site and seeing people requesting back-links, but only to sites with a PR of nine, or above.

Hilarious. What they fail to realise is that PR10, currently the highest rank you can get for a website, represents the most credible sites on earth. Websites like USA.gov, the U.S. Government’s official web portal and there are about 11 others enjoying such exulted status. Now, try getting a link from those and you’ll see the problem. Indeed, there are only 148 websites with a PR9 rank and that includes the BBC.

The point is, to get a link from these is nigh on impossible, as sites with a good PR rank are more discerning than others and they have lots of potential contributors.

Okay, it gets less tricky as you go down the PR rank scale (at 6, or 7, you still have to work hard), but is the idea of shunning sites with a PR rank of 1 to 3, correct.

No, because these sites will welcome contributions and if you pick them correctly, then they are likely to increase their PR rank and provide you with greater value.

The only thing is how to avoid the websites which will never grow. Firstly, don’t go for sites which appear dormant; that rarely update their copy. Secondly, just give it a quick go; can you navigate properly and does the site appear intuitive? If it doesn’t work for you, then it’s unlikely to work for the search engine bots. Finally, make sure that the content on the site is original and not being copied/lifted from elsewhere.

In short, yes, the higher the PR rank the better, but don’t totally disregard the potential of lower rank websites. They could prove a very good investment indeed.

The post High PR Is Not Always the Holy Grail appeared first on Cayenne Red.

They may be the same thing, but there is a notable difference in the spelling and expressions used by each country, which will make all the difference to the way that English words will be entered into the query box at Google by individuals looking for the content provided by your website.

Therefore, while the foundation SEO efforts that you make will not change; they will need to be slightly adapted, depending on the market that you wish to target: the U.S. or the U.K., or both. The optimization techniques remain the same, but it is the words that are used which must be altered.

Pay attention to the details of the language that you are using for a given market. The following are some of the areas of difference between American English and U.K English:

• Spelling – for example, recognize vs. recognise, behavior vs. behaviour, jewelry vs. jewellery.
• Words – for example, an elevator vs. a lift, a truck vs. a lorry, and two weeks vs. a fortnight
• Expressions – for example, in the United States, “football” means American football, but in the United Kingdom, it refers to soccer.
• Slang – for example, your telephone line could be busy in the U.S, but it’s engaged in the U.K.
• Abbreviations – for example, though someone in the United States won’t have any trouble knowing that PA means Pennsylvania and CA means California; those aren’t widely known outside the U.S.

When all is said and done, the concept of your SEO will remain the same, in that it will be applied in the same way as it would if you were targeting only one group of English speakers. However, it will need to be effectively and consistently enhanced so that you are covering a number of different terms and spellings so that when international visitors are seeking what your site has to offer – from information to products and services – they will be able to find you using the language with which they are most comfortable.

Adam Donkus, CEO of Search Engine Optimization Company, Baldy Dog

The post The Differences between American SEO and UK SEO appeared first on Cayenne Red.

Google’s Keyword Tool

The built-in AdWords Keyword tool is a simple and fast way to highlight keywords for your campaigns. Simply type in a few keywords that you’re already using and make sure they’re related or your results will be too broad; work through one targeted ad group at a time. Google will generate a list of keywords you could use, give you an estimated click-per-cost (CPC) and tell you the number of searches which use the term each month. If you want to target a specific country you can use the advanced options in the Keyword Tool to select languages and devices.

Use Your Website

This should be the first place you look for keywords when you begin your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, but it’s a good idea to take a second look later. If you update the content on your website regularly, you’ll probably find terms on your site that you want to be searched under and aren’t using.

Use All Match Types

The easiest way to triple the number of keywords you have is to use ‘phrase’ and ‘exact’ matches, in addition to the traditional broad match. This keyword wrapping tool makes this easy; just copy and paste your keyword list then wrap your words up. You can then copy and paste the ‘phrase’ and ‘exact’ matches back into your keyword list. Why are these match types helpful? ‘Phrase’ matches only trigger your ad if the searcher uses the right combination of words in their query. ‘Exact’ matches trigger the ad if the searcher uses that precise keyword.

For instance, ‘men’s cowboy boots’ is your keyword term:

As a broad match a query like, ‘boots’ or ‘cowboy’ could theoretically trigger your ad.

As a phrase match, ‘size 11, men’s cowboy boots’ or ‘brown, men’s cowboy boots’ could trigger it.

As an exact match, only ‘men’s cowboy boots’ will trigger your ad.

Implement Negative Keywords

When you run a search query report (you run those regularly, right?) you’ll probably see that you’re getting clicks from people who aren’t necessarily searching for what you’re offering. One great element of AdWords is that it lets you turn those search queries into negative keywords. In other words, you can ensure those keywords never trigger your ads again. Using the cowboy boot example, if your boot store only sells men’s cowboy boots, you should make ‘women’s cowboy boots’ a negative keyword. Take some time to think about some search queries that might unintentionally bring up your ads and then turn them into negative keywords. This is really important because you pay for every click on your ad, whether it’s what the searcher is looking for or not.

Remember that keyword research isn’t a one-time affair. To be the best advertiser possible you need to analyze your approach and innovate as much and as often as possible.

Trace Ronning is the social media coordinator for WordWatch. WordWatch are dedicated to delivering excellent AdWords management to small businesses everywhere. You can follow him on Twitter @WordWatchPPC.

The post Keyword Strategies for Adwords Advertisers appeared first on Cayenne Red.

The US reckon the Megaupload is making too much money from allegedly providing access to copyright material and depriving them of some $500 million in lost revenues.

Behind the website is the delightfully named Kim Dotcom – aka Kim Schmitz – a German national who is in the New Zealand dock after the FBI accused him, and three colleagues, of internet piracy and money laundering.

The New Zealanders have just denied Dotcom bail, as they agree with the Americans that he is a flight risk and would flee rather than face pending extradition proceedings for a visit to the states.

Dotcom and his team deny the charges and say that they are an online storage company and do not peddle in piracy, or money laundering.

Now, call me a cynic, but funny how the FBI took the decision to get the New Zealanders to act at about the same time as Wikipedia and the other anti Sopa and Pipa campaigners took their protects live across the internet.

As the internet guardians made sure that the US legislators knew their feelings about the new bills which they reckon will stifle web freedom and file sharing, the FBI showed how they can flex their muscles across thousands of miles of ocean.

And demonstrated, ironically, just why everyone is so nervous about the proposed US bills. It’s not the fact that Dotcom and his crew are guilty, or not guilty, but the fact that the US see themselves as the global internet police and when the FBI say jump, certain Governments ask how far!

The post SEO Consultancy Watches Dotcom Bubble appeared first on Cayenne Red.