18
www.homebusinessnetwork.co.uk Issue 3August 2009
Martyn
fEATUrE :: SEArCH ENGiNE OPTimiSATiON
Moore
The secrets of search
wOrkiNG wiTH JErEmY
engine optimisation
I’VE worked from home for seven months. I sometimes did it
By Emily Hill basis. This can be achieved in a number of ways, for
when I had a “proper job”, but that was different.
example bolting a blog onto the site and posting new
I used to work for a media company, but the attitude to
SEARCH Engine Optimisation (SEO) has a reputation as articles each day/ week; or writing regular news items.
home working was old fashioned. “Watching Jeremy Kyle?”
a black art, or at the very least a thing of mystery - an One of the most important, yet most overlooked,
was a typical jibe. Ironically, the newspaper I edited regularly
exclusive club to which only the chosen few have access. aspects of search engine optimisation is getting back-
promoted working from home, but we weren’t allowed to
The reality, however, is far more mundane. SEO links. This means websites linking to you without you
practise what we were preaching.
essentially boils down to three things: The way your needing to link back to them. When other websites link
Actually, as far as me ending my former career was
website is built, the content that populates your site to yours this tells the search engines that your site
concerned, an argument about home working was
and the websites that link back to your site. must be of some importance.
probably the second to last straw. The last straw involved a
The myth is that ‘if you build it, they will come’. The
Romanian lady acrobat and some talcum powder, but that’s
phrase ought to be: “If you build it in a Google-friendly
another story.
way, they will have a chance of finding you”. It’s less
The compromise agreement between me and my former
catchy but more accurate. If you’re having a new
employer contained restrictive clauses. For example: “If you
website built, you need to choose your web developer
do this, we want the money back.” The upshot was 12 weeks
carefully. Structuring a site to be search engine
of limbo.
friendly is a topic that would fill a large book of its
I signed on at the Job Centre and was shocked by the
own, but in brief whoever is building your site should
amount of security they need for the clients who drop in
ensure it has:
after they’ve been to the pub. The chances of finding a job
paying £100k a year were slim but I turned up every other
• Meta tags
Tuesday to take advantage of the free dentistry.
• HTML and Google site maps
Life consisted of winter walks with the dog, teaching
• Link paths
myself how to create a database-driven website, picking up
• HTML based text with no graphics embedded
the kids from school and making dinner. I liked it. I could
• Static urls
get a week out of a shirt if I wore a clean t-shirt under it
• CSS formatting and/ or standard rollovers for
every day.
navigation menu
• A robots.txt file
❝
This online networking led • A 404 error handling page
to my first commissions as a
• Absolute, rather than relative links
• No internal Javascript or Flash
freelance writer and I soon had a
• No frames
growing new client base.
❞
The phrase ‘content is king’ is just as hackneyed
as ‘if you build it they will come’, but it’s not far
When I added Twitter to Facebook and Linked In, any spare
wrong. Google, Yahoo, the newly-launched Bing and
time between dog-walking, HTML-wrangling and my Jamie
all the other smaller search engines have one thing Generally speaking, the more links you have back to
Oliver books was immediately filled. Incredibly, this online
in common: they’re all competing with each other to your site, the higher your ranking will be. However, it’s
networking led to my first commissions as a freelance writer
display the most relevant websites when a user runs a also important to make sure that your back-links are of
and I soon had a growing new client base.
search using a keyword (or combination of keywords). good quality. One link from the BBC’s website is worth
Suddenly I’m busy. A new laptop means that the garden
hundreds of links from obscure sites with low traffic.
is my office when the rain stops and I’ve got to know my
neighbours. In fact, there’s a whole new world right here in
my street.
❝
It is much better to take a “quality
Search Engine Optimisation is certainly labour-intensive
but it’s by no means unachievable if you’re a small
over quantity” approach to SEO.
But sometimes it feels as if the street is my world and ❞
business without the resources to pay a specialist SEO
company. Never be tempted by offers of “guaranteed top
I miss the gossiping, posturing, manoeuvring, flirting,
Back in the old days of the internet, this simply 10 rankings” or “a million guaranteed back-links”.
politicking, back-stabbing, “did you see the game?”
meant peppering your text with “Dentist Bedford” More often than not, your top 10 ranking will be for
entertainment of the office.
if you were – you guessed it – a dentist in Bedford. an obscure irrelevant keyword, and your back-links
When you consider the fun I’m not having, it’s weird that
However, it didn’t take long for keyword spam will come from “link farms”, i.e. spam sites set up for
as a home worker I find it hard to stay focused. I’m too easily
to become a huge problem, so today’s keyword the specific purpose. Any SEO benefit you derive will
distracted by IT for a start, so it doesn’t help to sit at a
optimisation needs to take a more organic approach. instantly disappear should you stop paying the link farm
computer all day. Maybe I need more meetings.
A dentist in Bedford would need to write original company – so you are effectively being held to ransom.
And I swear my guitar sits in the corner of the study
content around “teeth”, “tooth”, “dental surgery”, It is much better to take a “quality over quantity”
whispering to me. “Come on,” it quietly chimes. “Just half an
“south” as well as “dentist” and “Bedford”. approach to SEO. Focus on increasing your ranking
hour will sort that G to B minor.” And I’m away.
The other aspect of web content is the need for for the most relevant keywords that attract targeted
Soon my children will be back at school, bless them. And
unique content to be added to the site on a regular traffic to your website.
another barrier to productivity will have gone with them.
They’re so much more fun than work.
I’m writing this in the garden on a hot day in August. I
BOOk rEViEwS
haven’t had a tan like this in years but I don’t resent working
late, weekends or anytime it’s raining because I’m doing it the Entrepreneur’s book of checklists think Like an Entrepreneur
for me.
By robert Ashton By robbie Steinhouse and Chris west
Jeremy Kyle? Still haven’t watched him. But I listen to
Jeremy Vine as I raid the fridge each lunchtime. Radio Two
I like lists. The thing with How do entrepreneurs think?
is fattening.
a book of lists is that you Chances are you’ll not bump
www.martynmoore.com
can dip in and out and scan into Richard Branson or
quickly for information. And Martha Lane Fox at a party to
so it is with this book. Ten be able to ask them, so this
ways to look bigger than you book will help plug that gap
are, 10 ways to find more in your business networking.
homebusiness
time, 10 sleepless nights you Steinhouse, who has built his
can probably avoid. See what reputation over 20 years in
I mean? They were selected the recruitment, property and
at random and each one insurance sectors and West,
member offer
would be worth at the very a marketing guru and writer,
least a cursory read. The have come up with an insight
thinking behind the book is into the way those who are
Members of the Home Business Network can still buy
that with 101 one things to successful think on their feet
The which? Essential Guide working for Yourself for
do, a budding entrepreneur needs checklists; they need and tackle, for example, risk. The authors draw on a
£8.49 including postage and packing. The usual selling
reminding, prompting and warning. This is the kind of neuro-linguistic psychological programme to help new
price is £10.99.
book that could be kept by the bed, in the glove box or and growing business owners develop a can-do attitude
even in the downstairs loo – Philip Smith. – Philip Smith.
Call 01903-828557 and quote wYwZ0709.
Price: £12.99 / Publisher: Pearson Price: £12.99 / Publisher: Pearson Education
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