Keyword Tools For SEO and PPC Success

Posted by: Rebecca, 3rd Jan 2010

Keyword selection is the be all and end all of search engine marketing success. Get it right and you have a good chance of capturing more traffic by being seen for the most appropriate phrases. Get it wrong and no matter how visible you are for your selected terms, you’ll never experience tr... Read More

Christmas PPC Advertising On A Small Budget

Posted by: Rebecca, 10th Nov 2009

Have you had chunks cut out of your marketing budget? it’s still possible to make a splash online and increase sales via a targeted AdWords PPC campaign. Use your small budget wisely and you can blend PPC and SEO to great effect without stretching your marketing dollars too thinly. PPC A... Read More

PPC News Archive

Why You MUST develop a social media strategy in 2010

Posted by: Rebecca, 3rd Jan 2010

To develop any business strategy, be it marketing, sales or operational, you must ask yourself what you are doing, what kind of environment you are operating in and what your goals are. Only by drilling down to the very essence of your organization can you develop a plan for moving forwards. D... Read More

How To Hire An SEO Agency

Posted by: Rebecca, 23rd Nov 2009

If, despite your best efforts, your website is not making the inroads you would hope in the search engine rankings, it may be time to consider recruiting a UK SEO agency like Top Position. The job of hiring appointing a search engine optimisation company can be daunting if you have never work... Read More

SEO News Archive

Top Position A UK PPC and SEO Company

Top Position wants to help you achieve your pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimisation (SEO) goals. As an award winning digital agency, our client roster includes brand names like Shell, Ocean Finance and Majestic Wine. So, whether you want to improve your paid search performance with a managed pay per click (PPC) campaign across AdWords Yahoo or MSN or dramatically improve your online presence with a conversion focused SEO service, UK agency Top Position has both the expertise and experience needed to exceed your search engine marketing expectations.

Reasons To Outsource Your Pay Per Click Management

However large or small your AdWords campaign, outsourcing the day-to-day care of the account to a professional pay per click management company can reap dividends. Making the decision to outsource can be a complicated one with the additional cost of enlisting a professional offset against the advantages of taking the task off your own to do list. If you're considering hiring a professional pay per click management service, consider the following points:
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1. Time Saving

A good pay per click manager will save you a considerable amount of time. Especially if your main role involves overseeing other projects and marketing initiatives, pay per click management is a real time saving solution, freeing up your man hours for what you do best. Rather than squeezing in campaign changes when you have a few spare minutes, a professional account manager will be able to allocate the necessary time to optimising and running the campaign, so you enjoy the best possible return on your spend.

2. Trends

Keeping abreast of changing trends and techniques is as much a part of pay per click management as the hands on budget management, keyword selection and advert copywriting you're probably used to. As search engines change their requirements – for example the recent landing page loading time consideration introduced by Google – the necessary amendments must be made to the campaign to secure continued performance. Knowing about these changes and being able to action them to the best advantage is all part and parcel of a pay per click management service's duties.

3. Cost Saving

Although there are costs associated with outsourcing your pay per click management, a savvy account manager will be able to save you as much as 40% on wasted clicks and smarter spend. Knowing when and where to shave bids and how to direct budget for the best result is a skill that only the most experienced AdWords managers can leverage fully. Enlisting the help of a skilled manager will help you to cut through the reams of stats and data about click through, bounce rates, impressions and cost per acquisition to appropriate budget efficiently.

Why Search Engine Optimisation?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising a web site to appear in the search results of an engine like Google or Yahoo! when users type in specific keywords. Unlike pay per click or other forms of paid search marketing, search engine optimisation does not offer instant gratification. Every SEO campaign will necessitate some change to the web site being optimised, this costs both time and money with few guarantees of exactly how much additional revenue the project will drive. It's also impossible to say with any level of certainty exactly how long an SEO campaign will take to bear fruit. So why choose search engine optimisation over other marketing options?
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1. Long Lasting Results

When you opt for search engine optimisation, you do so secure in the knowledge that the results you achieve will typically be long lasting. Unlike PPC which leaves no legacy of your internet presence when the budget has run out, a well executed search engine optimisation strategy will provide durable results. These results may be in the form of strong rankings, increased visibility through link building or through a well constructed site with interesting, relevant content.

2. Better Conversions

A number of studies have shown that organic clicks convert as well if not better than clicks accrued from other forms of online marketing. That means pound for pound, your search engine optimisation campaign will deliver more targeted leads, more of the time.

3. Search Attitudes

A survey by Tamar in 2008 found that a massive 91% of search engine users prefer using organic rankings to paid search listings. To tap into that strong user sentiment, you must invest in a search engine optimisation campaign. Tapping into this positive search attitude means you've already gone some way to winning over the trust of the target market.

4. The Sales Cycle

As with traditional purchases, most internet buyers shop around before deciding exactly what they want to purchase and from which supplier. Even if they log on with a firm idea of just what they want to buy, shopping around is second nature for bargain hunters. SEO means you don't pay for multiple clicks on your paid search campaign and can position yourself in numerous locales (via link building), helping to reinforce your USPs at the point of buyer research.

Understanding SEO

SEO (or search engine optimisation) can be split into two spheres of activity; on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Both of these elements must be given equal weighting if a web site is to succeed in increasing its organic rankings for specified keywords. By developing both on and off page SEO requirements in equal measures, your web site will be easily indexed by the search engine spiders and provide a positive user experience.
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On page SEO

On page SEO is the practice of optimising the site itself. All attention is focused on the site (as opposed to looking at off page factors such as link building). If you're starting from the very beginning with your optimisation work, on-page SEO will initially require you to conduct a site audit and assess the suitability of the nuts and bolts of the site. This includes looking at elements such as the title tags of each page, estimating keyword density and keyword placement, examining URL structures, checking that ALT tags have been used, revising image file names, cleaning up coding, revising meta details and most importantly, auditing your site content.
When checking the content of your site, you must ask yourself how relevant it is for the keywords you want to be ranked for i.e. have your keywords been used, are they used in prominent positions? are you using keywords as anchor text to link through to other pages? Most importantly, is your content relevant to your target audience? One of the biggest mistakes made when revising content for SEO purposes is forgetting about the end user. The last thing you want to do is create page after page of information stuffed full of keywords with little or no interest for the reader. Wow your reader with fresh, well-written content and the conversions will follow.

Off Page SEO

Equally important when conducting an optimisation campaign is the off page SEO linked to your site. As you would expect, the off page elements of a site are more difficult to control. Off page factors essentially means the links back to your site. Within those inbound link counts, the search engines have their own list of requirements, just as they do for the on page SEO. Your inbound links must be plentiful as they are used as an indicator of how good your site is, they must be from relevant sources in order to direct interested traffic to you and they must use your keywords in the anchor text (the actual text of the link).
Inbound linking and off-page SEO is a breeding ground for black hat techniques such as using link farms, doorway pages and link churning. Avoid all these and instead focus on generating high quality, highly relevant inbound links from authoritative sources.

How Should You Choose An SEO Company?

Choosing an SEO company can be a minefield, particularly if you're a small company with limited budgets or are new to internet marketing. As your choice of agency will ultimately determine the overall success or failure of your online presence, the pressure is on to select the most capable provider within your price range. The supplier you choose must also demonstrate a keen understanding of your specific needs and be able to devise a strategy that suits your short and medium term goals. Crucially, the SEO company you pick should also explain exactly how they propose to improve your organic rankings.
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So, how should you go about appointing an SEO company and why choose Top Position?

1. White Hat not Black Hat Techniques

Any SEO service worth its management fee will only use white hat techniques. That means sticking to methods approved by the search engines. Any attempt by your SEO company to hide keywords, circumvent the traditional SEO process or artificially manipulate rankings will be deemed ‘black hat'. If you're found to be employing black hat methods on your site, it could be penalised or removed from the rankings.
As one of the most innovative SEO providers in the UK, Top Position uses a variety of methods to achieve better organic rankings for our clients. All of the methods we use are white hat. We have never used unethical methods and often show businesses coming to us after being pitched black hat methods by unscrupulous SEO companies where to find Google's own good practice guidelines. These guidelines list questions to ask your potential new provider as well as advising what to steer clear of. We hope that by helping you find this information, you will make an educated decision that will serve you and your web site well. Even if choose not to appoint us as your SEO company at this time, we are happy to advise on white hat and black hat techniques.

2. How Transparent Is The Service?

Anyone who has ever done SEO will know that it is an art form, not an exact science. What works for one web site may not work for another. As the search engines change their algorithms and requirements, your SEO company must also adapt its strategy. As those who have tried SEO before will know, it is a marathon not a sprint so you must be prepared to see results filtering through over the course of months not weeks. Make sure you ask your SEO company for a meeting before signing up to discuss your expectations.
With that in mind, it is vital that you choose a completely transparent package. Top Position's SEO service is wholly transparent. As soon as you appoint us as your SEO company, we will set up a number of report systems that enable you to quickly and easily track progress. We will install Google analytics on your site to monitor visitor numbers, referrers and bounce rates and also use bespoke link management and web ranking reporting. Your assigned account manager will also provide weekly verbal and written updates.

Increase Site Traffic with our SEO Service

So you need more traffic to your web site but aren't sure how to go about it? Top Position's SEO service holds the key. Not only will SEO help you build page rank and organic presence but the correct SEO service can also deliver more of the right kinds of traffic to your site. This is crucial for improving conversion rates and increasing sales figures.
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An optimisation campaign only increases traffic when done correctly. That's why our SEO service is efficient, personalised and professional. Your dedicated account manager will heavily research your industry beforehand in order to get a handle on possible content features, potential inbound link sources and competitor successes. Armed with this knowledge, we can design a campaign that will capture the attention of your target demographic.
Our SEO service isn't just about tweaking your on page content and building links, it's about creating an overall online brand presence that will serve you well for years to come. When you invest in SEO services you'll expect to see better rankings on the search engine for your keywords, but what about a positive brand identity? A substantial vertical search presence, built via social media marketing, digital marketing, online PR and selected link building, is created by your SEO services manager at Top Position and used to reinforce core brand messages and drive any negative press out of the search results.
The resultant placements in video, image and product searches will also provide a multimedia platform for capturing desired traffic. Often, users searching for specific items or educational information will use the video and image verticals to provide all necessary data about their desired product or services. By securing a presence in these areas for relevant keywords, traffic flows across all search engine properties are maximised.
These vertical search placements will also be complimented by participation in forums and directories, again ensuring the web site is placed in front of interested parties as much as possible.