Web

Your New Website – Have you failed at the last hurdle?

search engine marketing

Your Effective New Website

So your website has been built and properly optimised for the search engines, directories and local search tools – Job Done!

No, more like Journey Started to greater ROI.

During the build of your site, you’d have commissioned a design that was in line with your brand and visual identity, you’d have research the most effective keywords used for your market and then worked with the SEO team and the copywriter to maximise the search engine results, then you’ll have launched the site, normally to a fanfare and great accolades.

The final hurdle is seeing how it fares out in the big wide world as despite doing everything according to the rule book there are still pot holes to avoid. Avoid these and turn your great website into a star performer.

“You really don’t want to be scratching your heads in six months from the website launch
wondering why it’s not performing and regretting the investment.”

Considerations for an effective website:

  • Spotting and disavowing toxic backlinks that will damage your site’s reputation
  • Mapping missing landing pages from valuable legacy backlinks to new pages
  • Spotting and correcting tags and titles with insufficient or poor content
  • Correcting blacklisting by association with a tainted server
  • Correcting missing or incorrect site maps
  • Removing false Google reporting due to bots
  • Advising Google of remedial work on items completed that it flagged up as needing attention
  • Spotting trends in:
    • Falling Smartphone audiences
    • Poor social media engagements once on the site is published
    • Backlinking sites
    • Internal cross linking on new pages
  • Search terms that are performing well and those missing the mark so you can apply more suitable content and pages
  • Security issues
  • Changes in Google’s SERP’s algorithm – playing fair and by the rules is important!

“playing fair and by the rules is important!”

There’s a raft of checks and feedback to be done periodically to make sure you’re getting the best from your investment. This analytical work is not normally the domain of your marketing company, they normally do a great job with content provision, and inbound marketing with blog articles and social media strategy, but do not major on the mechanics that underpin the entire site.

Google Analytics example

Universal Analytics example

The above are just a few of the many review items website owners who are earnest about being the best that they can be online should be actively monitoring and acting upon. Post launch of your website, just one or two of these items can seriously impair a website’s performance. It’s such a shame to see website failure or significant underperformance when such blocking errors are not spotted and the owners are unaware of how much they could get from their investment.

“be the best that you can be online”

The business message here is find someone to look after the health of your website and manage its performance.


About the Author

Simon Thomas is the lead partner at Toucan Internet LLP who have provided progressive web development and online marketing resources to clients since 1997. Simon also has 20 years direct marketing experience pre-internet and provides a unique blend of innovative advice based on experience and an informed understanding of today’s and tomorrow’s technologies.

simon@toucanweb.co.uk
01279 871 694
www.toucanweb.co.uk

 

 

Are your SEO practices in line with Google Hummingbird?

Hummingbird, Google’s search algorithm overhaul

Customers earnest about getting and maintaining a quality online success have consistently invested time and effort in selecting the right keywords for their website and inbound marketing channels. Why? Because Google will recognise these and will index your site accordingly; done well and consistently, Google will give your site the rewards you seek with higher search engine results positions.

If you thought you’d grasped what needed to be done, Google changes the rules and in flies Hummingbird. It’s probably the most significant change to Google’s search rules in 13 years, reportedly affecting a massive 90% of all searches. Now it’s more important than ever that you have quality inbound organic referrers to your website, i.e. visitors referred to your site by other websites.

The Hummingbird change means that searches are now totally secure, suggesting that keyword analytics data could well be a thing of the past! Basically Google has switched all of its searches over to encrypted searches using HTTPS. This means no more keyword data will be passed to site owners and website owners will no longer have the ability to track users by their keyword searches.  Other search engines will still send keyword data through to help with your analytics and keyword development.

The exact way the Hummingbird algorithm works is not 100% clear, however it appears Hummingbird looks at over 200 different components when determining the search rank for a site much like previous releases.  However previously Google would focus on the specific keywords where as now, with Hummingbird, the focus is on the context of the words entered and the matching of that meaning to web pages to which it relates; web pages matching the meaning do better than pages matching just a few keywords. This is a good thing overall and will kill the trend of content writers damaging the copy of their content trying to achieve “the right level” of keyword stuffing.

What is clear is that if you are to maintain leading positions in Google search engine results your emphasis now needs to shift to the breadth of your website and to answering of specific questions for your audience. As has always been advocated by search engine marketing professionals, quality content remains key, it is that that your customers have and will continue to want to see irrespective of Hummingbird, but now the more the content aligns with answering specific customer questions, the more likely your page positions will prosper under Google Hummingbird.

In short, the new Hummingbird algorithm is trying to measure the quality and how valuable and helpful your website is in answering customers’ questions. The key is therefore having as many unique entrance pages on your website as possible offering breadth, help and expertise on many relevant topics, plus of course relevant peer backlinks.

So how do you grow the number and breadth of entrance pages? One answer could be simply by adding new content regularly to both your website and blog. The need for a blog becomes even greater if you don’t already operate one on your site. The more energy you place into the content on your site the higher you are likely to appear on Google search. It is clear that Google wants useful and relevant content to be king, and any future changes to its algorithms are likely to reflect this also. This may require many companies to examine their content strategies and look at how they can use as many forms of content to maintain the desired energy and diversity (e.g. Videos, PPC promotion of best content, info-graphics, re-blog on industry hot stories, etc.)

Are your SEO practices in line with Hummingbird? If you review your Google Analytics since Hummingbird was introduced in late August you will be able to see if there has been any decline in your website visitors. However, if you are to maintain and improve your search position you will need to reflect upon your whole online content strategy and the links to your site/content both on site and backlinks from other website and your inbound marketing from your social media. Make sure you focus on growing the number of relevant links and the quality, breadth, depth, frequency and value of your content if you are to maintain and improve your search position.


About the Author.

This article was written by Simon Thomas of Toucan Internet LLP, developing high performance websites on the Internet since 1995.  Passionate about his clients’ success, you’re invited to get in touch to see if you too could benefit:

For more information.
t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

 

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2014©. All rights reserved.

Home of the world’s smallest PC has a new Website

When WSPC the “home of the world’s smallest pc” needed a new website they had no hesitation in putting this important project to the incumbent web development company Toucan Internet.

WSPC build small, robust PCs that have the power and performance of desktop computers but take up minimal space making them ideal where space is at a premium and perfect for marine, automobile and other niche applications. Details at worldssmallestpc.com

Toucan Internet has looked after WSPC for many years and by consistent online marketing have secured good footfall to the site of relevant visitors looking to purchase, be they individuals or, more the norm, organisations looking for multiple purchases.

The website creative design immediately shows the visitor applications for the small PC’s so putting the product in context visually as soon as it’s glimpsed. This is very powerful for convincing relevant visitors to stay on site when they arrive from a search result.

Understanding buyers’ needs, we grouped the products into subcategories so that only the correct products are shown that meet the customers’ needs. This therefore makes it easy to select the most appropriate PC before buying through the onsite checkout.

The whole site is managed by WSPC using the Toucan Control Panel that makes complex updates to content and the shop a simple task.

Heavily optimised for continued search engine success, coding is in place to trap anyone following a link to the old site so they are seamlessly delivered to the new site; it’s all too easy to forget the quality links old sites have when developing new.

Toucan Internet is pleased to continue to contribute to the success of this long-established and well-regarded specialist pc supplier.

 


To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can improve your online success, please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

 

New coach hire website finds top Google success within weeks

Coach Hire Hertshttp://www.coachhirehertfordshire.co.uk/

Toucan Internet was delighted to collaborate once again with local coach hire company St Margarets.  St Margarets provide affordable and luxury coach hire for group travel.

In order to publicise this travel service, St Margarets commissioned Toucan Internet to construct a commercially successful website that increased their web exposure and assisted them with their business goals.

The key objectives for St Margarets coach hire website – along with intuitive aesthetics and functionality – was that the website was well optimised and Toucan’s approach has certainly borne fruit; after only a few weeks the website now appears on the first page of Google following typical and generic local searches.

Toucan Internet is pleased to be able to contribute positively to success of this long-established and well-regarded professional coach hire company.

To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can improve your online success, please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Sky Installer Website supports installation sales to domestic and communal buildings

AVUK, (http://www.avuk.biz) Sky’s approved installer in the South East for communal dwellings and domestic properties, new website was recently launched.

Designed, developed and hosted by Toucan Internet, this bespoke site is fully content managed by the client. Search engine optimised to deliver the right visitors from the search engines, this visually appealing the site leads the visitors to the information they seek and presents them with clear and easy to use “calls to action”. Visitors can search the site, make quick contact via a simple field from and sign up for news and offers.

The Toucan Control panel not only enables the management of the site content, it gives AVUK control over the newsletter subscription and provides a mass emailing function.

The bespoke control panel facilities are all designed to increase business efficiency and integrate web activity with the routine business activity.

See and recommend AVUK – http://www.avuk.biz

How much web page text is required to please Google?

Having been optimising websites for greater search engine performance, whilst giving a quality visitor experience since the turn of the millennium, Toucan Internet has always favoured including text of reasonable quality and in modest quantity.

Reasonable quality in that it must be well written English, relevant to the subject, contain the researched keywords to an adequate frequency and be cross-linked within the whole website, or websites should the enterprise operate multiple websites.

Quantity is always an interesting balance between satisfying two masters:

  • the human master needs to be provided sufficient text so that the reader gets adequate information but without presenting them with a wall of words and without flooding the creative design underpinning the visual attractiveness of your site.
  • the search engines and Internet directories master that will drive large numbers of relevant visitors and customers to your site if it’s done properly. When developing websites that need good search engine returns we’ve always considered minimal text content to be a poor choice; after all Google and the other search engines read the words to classify your site so that they can recommend it to others and if you provide either too little content, or content with insufficient focus for that matter, the search engines will not be able to adequately index your site. As a consequence it will not rate or perform highly.

The big question is “what is the right amount of content”. The simple answer is that from page to page in your website there really is no hard and fast rule as some pages will require masses of content and others quite a minimal amount to be fit for purpose. However we’ve found from many years of online marketing experience that the bare minimum to get noticed to any sensible degree is 100 words, however if it’s practical get this above 300 words.

This recently published article lends weight to the argument that it’s good practice to give Google as much relevant content as you can practically include – http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/12/09/googles-stance-on-content-length/

 


About the Author.

This article was written by Simon Thomas of Toucan Internet LLP who has been active on the Internet since 1995 and runs a number of commercially successful Internet projects. Toucan supports client’s web build to the correct standards, not just SEO, and maintains on-going search engine marketing for clients that value high performing websites.

For more information.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2013©. All rights reserved.

 

 

A Most Curative New Website

Make those aches and pains go away, visit Hazel Williams the registered osteopath in Stansted. You can find out more about the services offered by Hazel and the success she routinely has for her clients by visiting her new website developed by Toucan Internet LLP

http://hazel-williams.co.uk/ Osteopath in Stansted

Toucan Internet LLP worked in conjunction with Hazel’s creative partner to produce a search engine optimised website with an original creative design that clearly explains how she works and how she achieves results for her patients of all ages and from all walks of life. “At Toucan we’re always pleased to work with other professionals in the creative process as this increases the creative pool of ideas and engenders diversity” explains Simon Thomas Principal Partner @ Toucan Internet

If you think this website will be of interest to your friends and associates please link to it and spread the word.


To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can improve your online success, please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2012©. All rights reserved.

New website ten years later

When Lattenbury Services required a professional website in 2002 Toucan Internet  were recommended by their professional advisors and we designed and built a website that met the requirements and lasted ten years with a few  modifications along the way. Since Lattenbury Services were pleased with the consistent service offered by Toucan over the years, despite keen local competition, we were asked to redevelop this simple but important site that we’re now pleased to publish.

www.lattenburyservices.co.uk

The work also required some branding work to define more strict control of the logo and the strapline.

Lattenbury Services offer construction services for the countryside.  The bridges, footpaths, water courses and environmental and archaeological works are all best demonstrated with clear pictures. The site’s original creative design therefore includes many quality images rotating on the pages with information splashes, making for an interesting and captivating visitor experience.

Whilst Lattenbury Services do not run a social media program at the moment, we included popular social shares so that visitors can promote this website out through their social channels.

Let’s see this website stand the test of time like the original one produced in 2002.

For more information and a chat about affordable professional website development  and how Toucan Internet LLP can improve your online success, please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2012©. All rights reserved.

Community Focussed Website for North Weald Bassett Parish Council

nwpc-webgrab-blogWe were delighted to be commissioned by North Weald Bassett Parish Council to develop their website into something that would help the PC engage with the community and be a conduit for information flow in both directions. Having provided the council Internet services for a number of years prior, the council knew Toucan and were impressed with the level of support they had received.

The website had a tight budget and after a review of available options, it was decided to produce it on a WordPress platform giving affordability and flexibility. After the final training the council are editing the whole site themselves including the calendars, images, text and pages.

Adriana Jones, Finance and Administrative Officer for North Weald Bassett Parish Council said “I have found the service received by Toucan both with design of the website and support at all levels nothing less than first class. The process from start to finish has been seamless, and I look forward to working with Toucan in future.”


If you are looking for a reliable provider of business email facilities with a human interface, please have a chat with Simon @ Toucan Internet LLP, details below.

To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can improve your online success with an affordable web developemnt that will give a return on investment, please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694

e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk

w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2012©. All rights reserved.

WordPress expert joins team at Toucan Internet

helenWe’re pleased to welcome Helen to our website development team as our WordPress developer.

Whilst Toucan has the top-end development and programming requirements well supported we needed someone who was more than just proficient with WordPress.

Helen has been working with WordPress for over 6 years when it was still a little known blogging platform.

Converting an existing website to WordPress, adding a contemporary twist, or working from a bespoke design, virtually any website can be placed on this versatile and open source platform.

Helen comes from an engineering background and enjoys working with clients. As part of the training delivered to our clients she ensures they can develop their own knowledge enabling them to update their own website whilst keeping within SEO goals, adding new pages and posts.

When any spare time falls into her day she likes to have a game of tennis.


To find out more about how Toucan Internet LLP can influence your online success please feel free to contact Simon at the contact points below.

t: 01279 871 694
e: simon@toucanweb.co.uk
w: www.toucanweb.co.uk

Copyright Toucan Internet LLP 2012©. All rights reserved.