For those of you that are new to the world of Search marketing the following article will lay out the types of budget that you would need to consider spending to be a success online.

Search Marketing Ireland
Searcht marketing investments will vary depending on the country that you are targeting. This is due to how competitive it is in that country. Currently the online marketing scene in Ireland is not hugely competitive when you compare it to the UK. It is easier to obtain high rankings on local search engines in Ireland. This means that you have to spend less money in Ireland. Of course, the potential rewards are a lot less too as there is a smaller market.

For most Irish businesses the Irish market is sufficient, so I will restrict my recommendations to businesses just targeting this country.

So How Much Should I Invest?
You get what you pay for in this business. If you invest peanuts then you will probably only get peanuts in return. Would you expect to open a shop in town for €250? No, you wouldn’t. Therefore, you should get out of that mindset immediately. Your website is your online shop; it needs to look well, function well and be visible online. This takes money. If you are offered a deal that seems too good to be true then it is. 9 our of 10 websites will fail online or will never make a profit for their owners. This is the sad reality and usually stems from the fact that their website was approached in a half ass manner in terms of investment.

Web Design

If your website does not look the part then it won’t deliver for you. People have high expectations when it comes to websites. They want to be able to find what they want quickly and to purchase it quickly. There is a science behind web design. If you higher a joker to build your site then you will get a joke website

Recommended Investment

• Basic Website - For a basic website that has a unique design and branding, is easy to use and is marketing ready you would need to spend a minimum of €1500. This is a minimum recommended investment amount! For larger businesses you would need to spend more than this on a basic website. Your website will probably be bigger in size and you should look at investing €2000 minimum

The price of web design increases as the functionality of the website increases.

• CMS system - If you require the ability to be able to update a website yourself on a regular basis then you will need a CMS system. This functionality drives up the price of your website. For small website the price would now start out at €2000 and for larger websites it would be €2500

• Ecommerce – If you plan on selling something online then you will need an ecommerce system. These systems require a lot of work to get right. The absolute minimum you would need to invest to get a decent ecommerce system working would be €3000. Most online shops would cost upward of €5000. For large ecommerce sites you would be looking at an investment level of €10,000 plus.

Within search marketing you have a number of marketing options. We recommend that you consider investing in all these marketing options. This will increase your website’s visibility and that will increase your profits. Here we discuss investment levels for SEO and PPC.

Search Engine Optimisation

This form of Internet marketing involves the natural search results. These are search results that are created based on relevancy to a keyphrase. On Google, the natural / organic search results are on the left hand side. The vast majority of people click on these natural links in preference to sponsored links. Therefore, for many websites, their organic traffic figure will be the highest in terms of traffic. This is an area of Internet marketing that cannot be ignored.

Recommended Investment

SEO investment can be broken into 2 parts. There is an initial investment where you purchase a block of time that allows the seo specialist to get all the basics covered e.g. keyword research , indexing, optimisation, link building. Then there is a monthly retainer. The job of an SEO specialist never finishes. It is an ongoing thing and it should be an ongoing investment for you. Rankings come and go, if you do not keep investing in SEO then your rankings are likely to drop over time.

• Initial SEO Block - For small websites in an uncompetitive niche, targeting a large number of keywords, a minimum of 10 hours would be required. For larger websites in a highly competitive niche, targeting a large number of keywords, then you would need to invest 20 hours at the start. At JumpStart, we charge €30 an hour. This is HIGHLY competitive when compared to our rival companies.

• SEO Retainer - For small websites in an uncompetitive niche, a minimum of 2 hours per month would be required. For larger websites in a highly competitive niche then you would need to invest 8 hours a month.

Do the Maths

Pay Per Click

This form of Internet marketing involves the sponsored search results. On Google, the sponsored search results are on theright  hand side. Everytime a person click on your link to visit your website then you pay a certain amount for that click. If you have enough of a budget then you can guarantee page 1 visibilityimmediately for your website.

Recommended Investment

PPC investment can be broken into 3 parts. Like SEO, there is an initial investment where you purchase a block of time that allows the ppc specialist to get all the basics covered e.g. keyword research , campaign set-up, ad copy creation, optimisation. Then there is a monthly retainer. The job of an PPC specialist also never finishes. It is an ongoing thing and it should be an ongoing investment for you. A properly managed PPC campaign will help you attract more clicks for less money.

Initial PPC Block - For small websites in an uncompetitive niche, targeting a small number of keywords, a minimum of 6 hours would be required. For larger websites in a highly competitive niche, targeting a large number of keywords, then you would need to invest 12 hours at the start.

PPC Retainer -For small websites in an uncompetitive niche, targeting a small number of keywords, a minimum of 2 hours per month would be required. For larger websites in a highly competitive niche then you would need to invest 5 hours minimum a month.

PPC Budget – For your ads to display on search engines like Google you will need to pay for each click. Therefore, a PPC budget must be set aside to ensure that your ads are displayed throughout the year. We have worked with clients that invest €100,000 plus a year on pay per click. We have also worked with clients that invest €500 per year. The budget amount is up to you. In general, for small websites in uncompetitive niches you would need to invest €2000 per annum. €10,000 per annum is a minimum amount needed for larger websites in competitive fields targeting a large number of keywords.

Do the Maths

Profit Outlook – The investment needed to start your new online business can be a lot of money. The running costs for your online business will be considerably less in the second year and each year after. These are the years where you will see strong ROI. Profits will continue to increase and running costs will decrease.

Warning – these above investment amounts are average amounts. Each website is different and might require vastly different set-up and maintenace costs. If you want rough estimated figures, then you just got them. Are they going to be exact for your website…..probably not. This article is more just an eye opener for you and your business. These are the investment amounts that your competitors are investing. They would not be investing in such amounts if the profit margins were not multiples of the investment amounts.

If you are dipping your toes into the SEO waters for the first time then setting up your website on Google Webmaster Tools should be part of your set-up plan.

For Irish Internet users, Google is the dominant force. More people use Google than all the other search engines put together. Chances are that for many small businesses your Google traffic will outstrip all other traffic sources combined. Therefore, it is wise to understand and to view how Google sees and interprets your site. GWT helps you to see your website through Google(y) eyes

My top 5 reasons for using GWT:

1. Site Troubleshooting
GWT contains a category called Diagnostics. This category has options that will inform you if Google has problems crawling through your site. It can also make HTML suggestions that will help you to improve your website. Website owners need to know if there are any issues with the site that would prevent it from ranking high. This option will help shed some light on that situatation

2. Indexing
Google treats every page of your site individually, therefore it is highly important that all the pages of your website are indexed. Only when your pages are indexed will they start appearing on Google search results.

If you decided to target a new service and created a new landing page for this targeting keywords related to that service, then you want to make sure that Google will find your page. Search engines have the ability to find this new page naturally but there is no guarantee and the process can be slow at times. If you want to ensure your whole site gets indexed then use the sitemaps functionality to help that happen.

3. Link Analysis
Inbound links to your website is probably the most important ranking factor there is. Any information that Google can give you about these links is important. In GWT, there are options for ‘Links to Your Site’ and ‘Internal Links’. Both of these options will give you a very rough indication of the amount and type of links in your site. It is not accurate but it is good to be able to see what Google sees.

4. Site Speed
This has become a ranking factor recently. While there are plenty of websites and software programs that can tell you how fast your website is, it is useful to see what Google itself thinks of your site speed. In the ‘Labs’ section of GWT you will find a ‘Site Performance’ option.
This page gives you an indication of your site speed and compares it to other websites. For example, for my own website www.jumpstartmarketing.ie we get the following read out:

“On average, pages in your site take 1.8 seconds to load (updated on Aug 5, 2010). This is faster than 73% of sites.”

GWT also makes suggestions to help you reduce the load time of your pages. If Google tells you how to improve your site then you are probably best off listening.

5. Geographic Target
If you have a .com TLD and you are solely targeting the Irish market then it would make sense for you to use a .ie TLD instead. Changing your domain name is not something that you should do without some serious contemplation of the consequences, as it can effect your rankings and branding efforts negatively. For those website that have a .com and only want to target Ireland then GWT will allow you to associate your .com website with a geographical target. This is ideal.

Most people use local search engines when searching e.g. Google.ie (not Google.com). On these local search engines the TLD is a ranking factor. Google places more relevancy on sites that are associated with that country as they presume .ie domains would be more relevant to people searching on a .ie search engine. Setting the geographic target on GWT will allow you to compete better on local search engine rankings.

At JumpStart we continually develop new websites for up and coming businesses throughout Ireland and abroad. Quite simply having a website is not just a nice to have anymore; it’s an essential aspect of the whole marketing process. One of the first questions I usually get asked is “I want a new website for my business where should I start?” I think many people get overwhelmed with the thought of having to get a website designed for their new or existing business, especially if they are not savvy with the web and the latest technologies out there.

A Great Starting Point

When I talk to clients about their expectations, and I get an understanding of what exactly they are looking for, I always begin the design process with logo development. In my opinion a strong logo is essential to any business and it also provides a great starting point for the overall web design. Working with start-ups always seems to be easier than working with existing companies, the reason being the start-ups start on a blank canvas where existing businesses already have a look and feel they have grown accustomed to.

For some reason existing companies are reluctant to change, and this more so with revamping their logo, I find it hard to accept that a company will invest thousands in a new website but will not entertain having their logo re-touched. The logo doesn’t have to change dramatically but a tweak here and there wouldn’t hurt at all. Consider Apple, Coca-Cola, TodayFM they have no problem tweaking their logos from time to time!

Ok rant over so where was I? Oh yes a good logo can dictate how your entire web presence can feel. There are three main aspects to developing a striking logo.

• The Name
• The Colors
• The Tagline

The Name

When choosing a name for your business we always recommend having the keyword for your business in the name. For example if you run a dog walking service instead of calling it something clever like “Canine Canter” call it “Bob’s Dog Walking Service”. I know what you’re thinking the first name is slicker, but the second name actually describes in detail what your service does and it will work far better when you purchase a domain name. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an integral part of the overall process of web marketing and having keywords in your domain name will help you get a high ranking on Google (If you require SEO services click here to contact us now).

The Colors

Without going into too much detail on what each color means, remember when you choose a logo, these colors will also be used as a palette for your website. It’s recommended that you use no more than three or four main colors on your website in total, anything above that becomes confusing to the person viewing your website. If you use blue and gold in your logo, expect to see those colors feature heavily in the web design.

The Tagline

It’s an overlooked aspect of logo development, but if your company name does not describe what your company actually does then a good tagline is the perfect place to describe what you do to potential clients. If you’re an established brand like BMW or Snapple then people already know what you do or what you offer, but for new start-ups I believe an informative tagline will really help you develop a brand. Who can forget tagline like:

• Don’t leave home without it. – American Express
• Just do it. – Nike
• Think different. – Apple Computer
• The original cider – Bulmers
• Tastes great, less filling. – Miller Lite

Conclusion

So there you go, a striking logo can really help with the overall web design process of your site. Remember the key points when choosing your logo, Name, Colors and Tagline. At JumpStart we are well versed in logo development, we know what looks good and what will work well on your site. Please feel free to contact us anytime with any logos or web design queries you may have.

Contact

If you would like some help with logo development or assistance with your website, please feel free to contact us anytime

Ireland is a small country with a small population. The market is quite limited; therefore many Irish companies are forced to sell their goods and services abroad. Even in these recessionary times you hear about the booming export sector in Ireland. In fact, the Central Bank is crediting the export sector for helping us beat the recession.

There is a market out there for Irish goods. With the ever weakening Euro it makes sense for other countries to begin purchasing from Ireland. The question is – what is the best way to market your good and services abroad? Undoubtedly, advertising mediums such as TV, print, radio etc will work positively for your business.  However the most effective and cheapest way to market your business is online.

Exporting to the UK

The UK population is around 15 times bigger than the Irish population. This represents a huge market right on our door step. The Pound has been traditionally stronger than the Euro. This means that people from the UK have more spending power and purchasing Irish goods starts to make sense providing that the Irish goods or services you sell are competitively priced.

Having an Internet based business allows you to keep control of your costs. It makes targeting the UK a low risk, high reward venture. Setting up and marketing a website for the UK market can cost you just a few thousand Euros. This is a miniscule investment amount compared to the ROI experienced by successful companies. Below I start to look at look at the best ways to target the UK search rankings.

How to best target the UK search rankings

There are many different Internet strategies that can be undertaken to get your business in front of eyeballs in the UK. High search engine ranking for your website is one of those ways.  The UK search engine optimisation scene is far more competitive than it is in Ireland. More investment is needed in SEO in order to achieve similar results to what your website achieves in Ireland. Therefore, you need every advantage that you can take. Local search is highly important with search engines. People in the UK tend to search on Google.co.uk, just like people in Ireland search on Google.ie. These local search engines give priority to websites with TLDs for that country. This does not mean that your .ie or .com site cannot rank highly on search results. It is just hindered by the geographic association of its TLD.

Most Irish companies will have a .ie Top Level Domain. This is not very suitable for the UK market. And it will find it hard to be successful in UK ranking results. The best and most successful geo-targeting strategy would be to develop a specific UK based website with a .co.uk top level domain.
This new website will need to be localised to the UK market. It will need to contain the correct currencies and it should mention UK based addresses where possible. If you have a .ie and .co.uk site then you should tweak the content slightly between the two. Try and use the terms UK and Ireland where suitable on both. Another geo location factor you must consider is hosting. If feasible, look into hosting your site on a UK based server. Your linking strategy should concentrate on securing links from UK based companies where possible. With these geo location strategies we are always striving to increase our relevancy to the UK search results. The more our site seems like it is UK based, the higher it will rank in local Google.co.uk search results. If your website ticks all the above boxes then your business should become highly visible in UK search results and this will make you money. Your business will become part of the Irish export led recovery solution.

I will be discussing this topic in far more detail in future posts so keep an eye out.

It can be hard to get clients to see the benefits of investing in search marketing. Most businesses seem to think that by just having a website they will automatically be an online success story. This could not be further from the truth. Most websites fail. This is an unavoidable fact of life.

The one thing that almost all successful online businesses have in common is that they invest in search marketing. How much they invest will vary greatly depending on the industry they are in.

Search marketing involves marketing on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. It involves both search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC). Getting high visibility in search results can be worth millions to companies, so when you have to justify an investment in search marketing to a business then you know it’s gonna be a tough sale.

There are plenty of businesses not willing to invest in a long term search marketing strategy. This got me thinking – if I had just 1 working day to put together a successful search marketing campaign – what would I do? Is it even possible? Check out what I would do below:

Client Background – brand new client, already has an existing website that is not optimised

Hour 1

• Website Familiarisation – examine content and code. Get a feel for the website. Note down important keywords. Note down key selling points.
• Project Set-up - Set-up new account on our search marketing software. Acquire FTP access details. Set-up on Google webmaster tools and submit an XML sitemap. Set-up Google analytics. Create Google Adwords account. Pass login details back to client.

Hour 2

• Keyword Research – use keyword research tools to find all relevant keywords and organise them in logical groupings.
• Keyword Assignment - assign the most important keywords to the most important pages. Keyword research should spark off ideas for multiple new landing pages.
• Benchmark Report – take a selection of the most important keywords and find out where they rank on the search engines that are important to their business. Run a report and send to client.

Hour 3 & 4

• Onsite Optimisation - concentrate on following ‘quick win’ areas – Meta tags, headings, keyword rich content, inner linking, code optimisation.
• Landing Page Creation – each product that the business sells needs its own landing page. This will benefit both SEO and PPC results. Use the keyword research to spark off landing page creation ideas – build them and then optimise. Link to these new pages so as to pass link juice to them
• Fresh Content – create a source of unique, fresh, quality content on your site. This will help your link building efforts in the future. Insert social bookmarking and social media sharing capabilities.
• Extra Time – If extra time is needed then take it from the link building section that is next.

Hour 5 & 6

• Link Building – This is the most important ranking factor and 2 hours is very little time to build links but it has to be done. Locate relevant websites to obtain links from. Use connections in the industry. Apply for links from quality directories. Social bookmark. Give client our long term link strategy advice document and explain to them how they can help their site to improve through their own future link building attempts. The fresh source of content that was inserted in hours 3 – 4 will act as long term link bait.

Hour 7 & 8

• Google Adwords – We already have the account set-up in hour 1 and we have the keyword research done in hour 2 with the keywords grouped logically. We have noted the key selling points for the website and we have optimised high quality landing pages created in hours 3 – 4; this leaves us with only the campaign build to perform.
• Campaign Build – Create multiple ad groups, making sure to keep each ad group highly relevant to the target search terms. Create at least 2 ad copies per ad group. Determine suitable bid amounts and tweak shortly after campaign goes live if needs be.
• Phrase & Exact Match – Only use these match types. We do not have time to examine broad matches in the future so create a tight, restricted campaign that keeps costs under control.
• Google Vouchers – Use one of the multiple free Google vouchers that are given to search marketing agencies to get the campaign started.
• Campaign Goes Live

Now I am not saying that your website is going to be ready to take on the world after this 1 day of intensive search marketing work, but your site will definitely be better armed to take on the Internet challenge. The chance of success has been greatly improved. However, always bear in mind that search marketing is a long term process and campaigns need to be tweaked and web designs improved in order to achieve best possible results.

Will it be enough to succeed? Maybe it will and maybe it won’t

When I am not chained to my desk in the JumpStart dungeons I enjoy a pretty active life. Sitting on a chair all day is ideal for developing that hunch back look, and at times I think I am morphing into some sort of cave troll. I have tried to slow this reverse evolution from man to beast by swimming, cycling and running whenever I get some free time.

Triathlon has been the fastest growing sport in Ireland over the last few years. It seems to be the cool thing to do at the moment but for those of us who were triathlon-ing 10 years ago, we can remember turning up to triathlons with less than 40 people in them. Oh those were the days! There were no races selling out, you could enter on the day, and the entry charges were virtually non existent. 10 pound would get you your entry fee complete with goodie bag.

But like everything, things move on and now many of today’s triathlons are run for (large) profit by event managment companies and they sell out straight away. The triathlons are certainly not cheap any more but it is still great to see so many people taking part in the sport.

The growing success of triathlon has given rise to jobs across Ireland. Each of the businesses below have gained from its growing popularity

• Sports shops / Triathlon shops
• Event managment companies
• Timing chip companies
• T-shirt manufacturers
• Training holiday organisers
• Personal trainers

At JumpStart, we have also gained from triathlon’s growing popularity by recently creating an online ecommerce site for Trizone based in Athlone. When you can combine work and something you are naturally interested in then it doesn’t quite seem like work.

Google has just splashed out on a new look for the summer.

In Google’s attempt to stay on top in the search engine wars they have changed the look and functionality available on their search results.

The search results page display has been changed. They have added search options on the left hand side of the search results. I would imagine this has been inserted so as to help Google users pinpoint the most relevant search results for them. The new design seems a bit alien to me at the moment but I am sure my eyes will adjust to this new look and added functionality.

Whether people see this as an over complication of a search display that worked or a great new feature, only time will tell.

The Change for Irish Search Results

The main thing that struck me about the design changes was that the tickbox for ‘pages from Ireland’ on the Google.ie homepage has now been removed. This is a very strange move. It can however be found in the new search options panel on the left hand side of your search results. This just seems to over complicate search for people interested in just pages from Ireland. They must search first and then adapt their search results after.

Most .ie websites would find it easier to rank highly in the pages from Ireland search results. Now that this option is not present as a tick box on the Google.ie homepage it would indicate to me that fewer people will end up using this search option. This will have effects on website performance for .ie companies. I am not saying that there is going to be a huge effect but there might be some. Only time will tell.

Some rough usage stats from a survey on Radical.ie are available below:

• Survey Amount: 700
• 64% of those using Google.ie are mainly searching using the web function
• 36% mainly search pages from Ireland

Some 2008 search stats for the UK from Hitwise (their search patterns often mimic Ireland)

Search Results – This new change seems to have effected my ranking reports which is quite annoying. The websites we work with have not lost their local rankings, but the software we use no longer picks up the search results for Google.ie pages from Ireland. One more problem we will have to fix!

So do you like Google’s new hair do?

A successful web design & development project is like a good marriage; it needs buy in and compromise from both sides.

Here is a checklist of items you need to prepare before contacting a web design company.

Budget
Know what your budget is upfront. Like everything in life you get what you pay for, you’re not going to get the site of your dreams for €500.
If this is your budget no problem, get the next door neighbour with the Bebo account to do it for you.

Nature of the Business
Document exactly what the nature of your business is. A professional development company needs specific requirements, and needs to understand your business before they can even consider a design or an SEO strategy

Target Audience
Who and where is your target audience? Are you trying to target children, young people, adults or pensioners? Are you targeting your town, county, province, Ireland, Europe or the whole universe?

This is vital information when it comes to creating a design concept, for example what font size to use, what colours would be attractive to a certain demographic. It is also essential from a marketing point of view and how to best pitch your business online. Remember the web is moving at such a fast pace that every detail is important.

Main Competitors
You should know this already, and if you don’t then are you taking your business seriously? Knowing who your main rivals are is essential. If there are many competitors then this is a good and bad thing, this means that there is a market for your business, but it also means that you will have to invest to beat your competition.

Having a look at successful rival sites is a great way to give you ideas for your own site. Try and list the top five features you like about your rival sites, so your developer will have a clear indication of your requirements. Remember the designer cannot read your mind, if you know any designers that can read minds, please get them to contact me ASAP!

Style of the site
What style are you looking for?

• Clean
• Simple
• Flashy
• Minimalistic

Again do your research and take note of sites you really like. This will make the designer’s job a lot easier if they know what your personal taste is. Sure the designer will come back with sample designs but they need some guidance (unless they are mind readers of course!)

Extra Functionality
In the old days of the web, a site consisted of text and images mashed together. Nowadays with the emergence of so many web technologies, a website can basically do anything within reason. Extra functionality, such as a built in shopping cart or Flash animation will cost extra, so its important you know up front what you require so this can be factored into your budget.

Conclusion
I hope this gives you some indication of the groundwork that needs to be done by you before you begin your website project with a web design studio. Remember the designer will build the site of your dreams but they need the raw material from you to create the vision.

If you already have your ground work done, feel free to contact me anytime (087 6006529) so we can kick things off.

Don’t take it from me. Matt Cutts of Google fame has revealed it on his blog – http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/site-speed/

The quickness of your page downloading has always been an important usability factor. Now Google have expanded it to mean much more.

Everybody wants the page they click on to load quickly. Slow loading pages lead to many abandoned searches. These type of search listings frustrate the user experience. Google would like to force improvements in this general area to make their search results more helpful to the user.

How Fast am I Going?

To check out the speed of your site and to gain some valuable insights on how to improve your site speed then check out what Google thinks of it at – Google Webmaster Tools.

Goto >> Labs >> Site Performance

GWT allows you to analyse your sites performance. GWT will tell you how your site compares to other websites and it will give suggestions on how to improve your site speed.

For JumpStart marketing.ie, on average, pages in our site take 1.5 seconds to load. This is faster than 85% of sites.

Just to show that we are far from perfect at JumpStart the areas we need to improve on are:

• Enable Gzip Compression

• Combine External JavaScript

• Minimize DNS lookups

• Combine External CSS

Taking Action!

Now before you go adjusting your SEO strategy to make site speed your no.1 focus you need to remember that this is one of over 200 factors that Google takes into account. Matt also says that this factor is weighted very low in comparison to relevancy factors. Keep your SEO strategy as it is but be aware of this new ranking factor and reduce your website’s code clutter where possible:

5 simple Ways of improving your download speed include:

1. Image Compression & Reduction – Make sure that you compress all your images as much as possible and don’t use images where text will do.

2. External JavaScript – Create external .js pages for any JavaScript programs you are running on your page. Link to these externally.

3. Use External CSS styling – All styling elements should be stored externally and linked into your web page. Do not use nested tables. Instead use a layer based layout.

4. Meta Tags – Don’t clutter up your tag with lots of useless Meta tags. Most of them are of no use when it comes to ranking.

5. Limit your use of large files such as Flash files, Video files. These can be really large and if they are not essentail to your website then leave them out

Every time we receive an email or a phone call from a potential client we record the questions asked. From reviewing our records over the last 12 months, the number one question we received was:

“How can we make our site more Google friendly”

Any seasoned SEO campaigner will tell you that there are many variables involved and the key elements can change over time. I have put together 7 quick tips to make your site more friendly for the Google web crawlers.

Number One
Don’t use flash to develop your entire site, you may as well ask Google to ban your site, some people will argue that Google can crawl flash but why take the risk? Sure your site might have some cool flash feature but its not cool if your site cannot be found!

Number Two
Avoid code clutter. If you do not need a line of code then get rid of it. If you have large JavaScript funtionality in your code then put it in an external .js file and link out to it. Don’t overcrowd the header area of your site with excess Meta details. Use external style sheets and avoid table based layouts. Keep your code simple. This will also allow your pages to load quickly. This also helps usability and PPC quality scores. Try and construct the code so that the content is as close to the starting tag as possible.

Number Three
Google loves content. If you want to make your website Google friendly then place plenty of content into each web page of your site. Aim for at least 100+ words on each page. Try to avoid websites that are predominantly image based. The content tells Google what your site is all about. Place your keywords into the content and you Google will rank you highly in its search results.

Number Four
Choose a domain name that is relevant to your business, for example if you are selling apples a good domain name might be deliciousapples.com or applesforsale.com. Having your primary keyword in your URL can really help your listing. Also, place keywords into your page names and folder names. Try and have simple URLs where possible. URLs with loads of parameters are not loved by Google and should be avoided. They are also an eye sore for users and are harder to remember.

Number Five
Get a professional to write the code for your site, everyone knows someone who can build websites, but if you do invest in code that is well created and W3C compliant then Google and search engines might have problems crawling your site. If they can’t crawl your site then they cannot find the content that they are looking for.

Number Six
When you get your site developed ensure that your developer generates a sitemap, this helps Google and other search engines to find and index your site. You can generate a HTML sitemap that will be placed on your website. You can also create an XML sitemap and submit this directly to the search engine. You submit to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.

Number Seven
Interlink your pages to other important pages in your site, this will help Google find other pages in your site. When Google arrives at your site it crawls through your code. It travels from page to page via links. If you do not have links to a page then Google will not find it. If Google does not find your page you will not rank for the keywords that page targets.

Contact
So there is a short list of tips, I hope you find them useful. If you would like to learn more, contact me at 087 6006529 anytime. If you need an SEO quote then send me your details and I will send you a competitive quote.