SEO Tips & Advice | Social Media Strategies & News

Hope you’re enjoying the keyword research posts so far. As you can see there are plenty of ways of generating keywords, and working out how popular they are.

I also showed you a way of finding out the commercial intent of a searcher with certain keywords. Want to find out what keywords your competitors are bidding on? Bearing in mind people are actively spending on these keywords every time someone clicks on them they have to turn a profit for them to continue bidding on those words! Either that, or they have bottomless pockets

Well with the help of a free plugin – you can find out what keywords your competitors (or anyone) are bidding on. Please note, this only works with Firefox (an alternative to Internet Explorer) You can download Firefox here.

Please check out the video below to find out how to use PPC Webspy:

Grab PPC Webspy for free

Popularity: 24%

By now, if you’ve been playing around with the selection of free keyword research tools I have demonstrated, you should have some kinda list of keywords that you feel would be great to aim for. If you haven’t – I suggest you check out the Keyword Research Category.

But what now?

Well having a list of keywords is great – knowing how popular they are, even in different countries is also great. But how do you know if you’re going to profit from them? Lets face it – that’s why we’re doing this stuff right?

It’s all very nice showing of your nice rankings, but that means nothing if it’s not bringing in the moolah. I’ve ranked highly for some real strong keywords before, but the conversion was not worth writing home about. Yes, there could have been other factors such as the written copy etc, but even with lots of traffic to counteract that – it still was a flop.

Is there a way of finding out how likely people are going to spend money using particular keywords? Well actually there’s at least two ways and today I will be covering one of them. The best part? It’s still free

MSN also provide various tools but one in particular stands out, and is worth including in your keyword research process. Trust me, it’s worth taking that extra time on this.

So go ahead, check out the video below to get an understanding of how the tool works, and also to be clearer in how to think about the keywords you want. Top level generic isn’t always best

MSN Commercial Intent Tool can be found here.

Popularity: 36%

Well we’re on a bit of a roll now! By now, you should have started to use two quick, easy and free tools provided by Google to help you generate some keywords.

What’s that? You want more? Ok – you’ve twisted my arm

Now one thing you need to do is guage the popularity of your keywords to see if infact they are the most popular terms you could choose. Remember, there are multiple ways of searching for the same thing, so it’s worth comparing very similar search results to determine which is most search for.

For instance, if you were to compare between “Online Casino” and Casino Online” you would find out which is most searched for – even though they are very very similar.

Of course, the more popular a term, usually the more competitive, but it pays to see if the word you thought of is even really used before you waste your time optimising around that phrase.

Try not to compare a really generic one word term with less generic ones, otherwise your results will be swamped out by the generic term and it will make it hard to judge the popularity of your other keywords.

Ok, so without further ado – please check out the video below to see this tool in action, and to give you an idea as to how powerful it is:

The Google Insights Tool can be found here.

Popularity: 21%

Following on from the previous post about keyword research (Keyword Research – Google Adwords Tool) I thought I’d make another quick video to demonstrate another quick and easy way to generate more keywords, or refine the ones you already have.

This is another free offering from Google on the keyword tool front and is worth your while checking out. Please note – this used to be available on Google.com and Google.co.uk but recently the result count has been removed on Google.com. Other than that, it still works the same as the UK version.

Please check out the short video below to find out more:

Popularity: 21%

OK, today we’re gonna delve into keyword research today but one technique at a time as there are a million and one ways in order to conduct keyword research – most free – some paid.

Looking back, it was probably more of an idea to start with keyword research before writing about on page optimisation, as this is very useful information when it comes to your content writing!

Oh well, at least you know how to write your content more effectively when it comes to your Page Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords.

I think the best way to discuss one of the free keyword research methods is by a video rather than via text and screen shots. Now, this isn’t going to be a full tutorial on how to use the tool – Google has guides which will be worth checking out. This is going to introduce you to the tool, and what it can achieve and how it can give you a great head start with getting together some keywords.

So, please check out the video below and get cracking with generating some keywords!

The Google Keyword tool can be found here.

Popularity: 21%

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to post a quick update here as I know I’ve been very quiet recently which is a shame as I was getting off to a flying start and I am sorry for being very inactive.

Without going into too much detail – a lot of things came to a head recently in my life and I needed to take a break from working on the blog and writing.

I think I summed it up with an impromptu Tweet I sent out on 16th September:

Spent all this time optimising websites and neglected optimising myself.

That was certainly hitting the nail on the head at that time and I had to make at least one very big sacrifice which still is a decision that is a tough one to swallow.

I still don’t think I’m 100% there but I feel it’s time to try and get the ball rolling again.

On a lighter note (and a lot more related to this blog) I have been thinking long and hard about changing the theme I use and I think I have found an excellent candidate. Although this theme is fantastic, I think there are lots of little things that take up too much time to maintain.

I’m pretty tech savvy but I need something that is quick and easy to edit and shape as this blog gets older and has more content. I will be looking to grab the new theme within the next couple of weeks, as it isn’t a free one but I think it’s more than worth it.

The whole idea of this blog remains – to provide as much free information as possible about SEO, Social Media and Internet Marketing as these are areas that I have a lot of passion in and love to write and teach about.

The SEO stuff got off the ground with some introductions into basic SEO practices and I will try and branch out ASAP into the Social Media side too. I’m just trying to put a logical angle on constructing the content whilst trying to cater for different levels of knowledge. In the mean time I’m happy focusing on the real grass roots of this stuff for the new guys and girls out there

OK, so over the next few weeks there will be some housekeeping, and more content coming – so please – keep a look out by subscribing to the RSS feed, or following me on Twitter.

My YouTube channel will also be getting more attention, as well as the Facebook fan page I will be getting off the ground, so there really is no excuse not to keep in the loop with what I’m doing

Until next time – take care.

John

Popularity: 14%

After the previous post about how to optimise a title tag I thought it would be a good move to talk to you about the Meta Tags and Meta Description as I had mentioned them.

If you cast your mind back, you would have already seen the Meta Description in action on the example I presented when talking about a good example of a title tag. Lets take a look again below:

A Decent Example of a Meta Description

As you can see, below the title tag is a description as to what that page contains. You really need to start thinking of this as your advert copy. This, along with the title, is designed to compel people to want to click on your result over everyone else’s.

Read more…

Popularity: 51%

OK, so with the overall introduction to SEO and the main two “categories” explained in the post So What is SEO? I thought it would be a good idea to break down the various elements of on page optimisation in easier to manage chunks.

I’m all about trying to do things in a logical order, so what better way to start by checking out the Title Tag?

As mentioned previously – this is the information that is found at the top of your browser window and should be used to distinguish your site from anyone else’s. Not only that but it gives you a helping hand when it comes to optimising your site.

A while back, the title tag was a very powerful element in the ranking factors but nowadays its not as powerful but should still be used correctly in order to gain as much out of it as possible.

There are two reasons for this:
Read more…

Popularity: 19%

OK, so there is plenty of information out there telling you what SEO is, how to do it etc etc – so I apologise if this isn’t “new” to you.

The aim here is not to tell you how to suck eggs, but to give you guys that are starting out a good footing for understanding the concept of Search Engine Optimisation and realise it’s not witch craft after all!

You’ll notice I spell it as Optimisation rather than Optimization – as of course I’m a UK guy (born and bred British) – that alone will effect how and where I rank for certain terms. This will become clearer later on in future posts.

Right, before I fly off on a tangent, lets get back to the whole point of this post shall we?

Good – let’s go…

Read more…

Popularity: 10%

Remember – if you haven’t already – you can find out more about me here.

Well here it is – the first official post of the new blog! To say I’m excited would be quite an understatement as I have always wanted my own blog.

So what’s the deal here? What’s this blog gonna be about? Well that’s a good question! This is also something that I would like you to help shape. I would love to hear feedback on what you like/don’t like about what I write.

Primarily though, it will be about online marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), Social Media and a host of other tips, tricks and advice to help you build a presence online for your business or personal needs. I have a lot of experience in the online world despite my age – but one thing for sure, is I am extremely passionate about the subject area.

What does that mean? Well, for one – it means that this to me isn’t a “chore” to write this. I’m not doing it just for the sake of it. I live and breath this stuff. I read about it all the time, I watch videos, listen to audios and so I’m pretty well versed in all this online stuff and just love writing!

I’ll be looking to bring in guest bloggers who I have had the pleasure with working with, or connecting with over time in order to add new perspectives to the subject area and I will be looking to sort out interviews from a lot of the guys that have taught me so much over the course of time, so stay tuned for them!

Now, as this blog is also about Social Media, I want to make this place as sociable as I can by allowing you to comment using your Twitter, Facebook and other accounts, so you can broadcast to your friends what you think of the latest posts.

I also want to make this as accessible as possible by sorting out Podcasts and Video Podcasts, RSS feeds and any other medium I can to allow you to keep up to date even if you are on the move.

Remember, currently I have Twitter (@johnhutson) and YouTube (johnhutsontv) as well as a Facebook fan page I am setting up to allow you to join in the conversation there. I hope I have covered all bases there! Although I’m planning on being everywhere, so basically there is no escape from me. Sorry!

Anyway, I’m gonna roll for now, as I wanna start getting an idea as to what areas to write about first. So, if you find me this early on I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

Until next time. Get involved!

John

Popularity: 7%