How Google captured the market

Search engines provide the best matches to a users search query. They rank sites using programs called spiders or robots and return what they consider to be a prioritised listing to any query. Google is the biggest search engine and has over a 70% market share and are very much the focal point for all SEO and paid search campaigns. Google though, was not the first search engine the and actually began quite late. So why did people start using Google? In short, because they delivered the better results to the search queries than the other search engines. Read the rest of this entry »

Anchor text links

Anchor text links are a form of hyperlink on a web page that directs the user to a different web page or to a specific section of a web page. This is normally done for reference to aid understanding. A hyperlink can be a text or a image link. An anchor text link is a hyperlink with visible, clickable text and are an effective search engine optimisation (SEO) technique. Read the rest of this entry »

Alternate text tags

Alternate text tags are the alternative text that browsers display when the user cannot see pictures or has turned off the picture component of their browser. Search engines cannot read images and instead they rely on the alternate text description. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting your site to the top of Google for local searches

The internet has revolutionised everyday life. Most people use the internet several times a day to do things like sending emails or buying clothes and groceries. A lot of people spend several hours a day on Facebook chatting to friends and family. In fact 95% of people research products online before they buy them and more and more people are buying products online rather than buying products in shops.

The internet is so popular because it is convenient and most in most cases, cheaper. It also provides the opportunity for people to interact who liver thousands of miles apart completely free. The internet is huge and is only going to get bigger. Read the rest of this entry »

Google Penguin: The affects and the causes

The latest update to the Google algorithm has been named Google Penguin and went live on the 24/04/2012. It has had a huge effect on the SEO world both in terms of rankings and in terms of link strategies. It has now been 6 weeks since Penguin first went live so let’s have a look at its effects.

Google updates are nothing new and have happened for years. The first big Google update was Google Florida back in 2003, then it was Google Panda which went live in 2009 and now it’s Google Penguin. Like any program, these are constantly updated and refined. Read the rest of this entry »