Importance of Relevancy

Content is king…only if it is unique and relevant content.

How can you expect to have top ten results for phrases that aren’t even in your website? We have looked at many websites where the owner has put in hundreds of keywords into the meta data (a good place to see what they are after) that don’t appear anywhere else in the website’s content.
It’s no accident that Wikipedia, probably the most content filled website on the net, does so well for many searches – this is for a plethora of reasons, on the whole based around quality, focussed content and website structure.

Get to the Point

Don’t bore your human readers with verbose copy.

What do you do?

A customer only needs to be told once what you product can do and what the USP is. However many websites don’t even do that, and expect the visitor to have a 6th sense in determining the product.
Avoid general irrelevant marketing speak.

“Our products are perfect for your business and help you to get the most out of your working day”
Could read:
“The Acme colour printer, fast, slim and sleek, just £99 – buy it now”.

Use descriptive keywords. What are your products? What industry are you in? What is the key, tangible benefit of your products?

Make it an interesting journey

Ask yourself, what do you want the audience to do next? It’s one thing having a website that people have visited, but if the website is just page after page of product and company information, users will get bored and not sign up or buy your product.

The customer journey is an essential aspect. Eyeballs need signposts on where to look next. Plus we all like looking at imagery rather than a page full of small writing.

Meta Data Writing

When writing Meta descriptions and titles, don’t try and squeeze in all your products and keywords in to that one little area. In the title highlight what the page is generally about, the description should describe the page or product or service in more detail. It should however not be a long list of all your products and services and an opportunity to duplicate all your keywords and different spellings of your company name.

Call To Action

The user needs to feel compelled to read your content and travel through your site wanting to find out more, then ultimately you will want them to get in touch with you by email, phone or visit a store – So tell them what to do next.


To find out more about Content Writing and quality SEO copy call Sam Silverwood-Cope at Intelligent Positioning.

Author Sam

Again naming no names, the chart below highlights this dramatic fall from grace for a number of keywords – without a replacement URL. As, highlighted in the previous blog entry – placing a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL is vital as it passes over all the page value and backlinks to the new URL – permanently.

The new website is up and running and does not yet feature anywhere within Google, Yahoo! or Live. This results in traffic being deployed more evenly to the remaining URLs on page one. The benefits of a 301 redirect are endless!

301 to a 302

A website that performs well for a keyword term that has a 301 redirect pointing to it is extremely important for good positioning – providing that the first website has good page value. One mistake that some people make is downgrading a 301 redirect to a 302 redirect. It is recommended that if website A needs to redirect to website B on a permanent basis – a 301 redirect is used and is not changed. This issue is highlighted in the chart below:


For more Self Help SEO and Hints and tips keep posted.

Redirects come in various types from the temporary redirects to permanent redirects, which can be implemented at page level or server level. Implementing redirects is quite an easy task, all you are doing is informing the search engines of the new page location, whilst instructing the server or internet browser to navigate to a new url upon landing on the old url.


A redirect is used to point the old destination to the new destination at page level or domain level, which means you can setup a redirect on single pages or a group of pages, or you can redirect an entire domain. Redirects are versatile and very useful and are a must for anyone looking to change the website structure or domain name.


Lets look at redirects at their different levels:


When implementing a redirect, there are many different things to consider, such as, is the new destination page in a better location then it was previously?. When redirecting one page location to another, it is important that the following factors are considered:

• - Is the destination domain the same or is it a new domain?
• - Is the destination domain brand new or does it have some age behind it?  (only if domain has changed)
• - Is the destination URL friendly (i.e. not excessive in length or keyword usage)
• - Has the destination URL been used for any other pages previously (Conflict of content theme)
• - Has the destination URL been involved in any link development or bad link practices?

Since the domain is the foundation for a website in the natural search index, just swapping it with another domain is not a good idea, especially if the new domain is less than a year old and has no back links, the knock on effects can involve a loss of rankings.


Changing a domain should only be done when absolutely necessary or if the previous domain is very young and hasn’t built up any credibility. Redirects help save a lot of credibility when moving URLS/Pages, however, the changes in website structure can still have a positive or negative effect in Google depending on the redirection used among the changes in content, page text and more.

So what redirect is right for me?

Temporary 302 Re-direct:

A temporary redirect should be used when the URL structure changes but only temporarily. This is used on websites that are under development and are still undergoing page and url structures. For example, if we wanted to put a temporary redirect on a product page because it was placed in a different destination from what it would be if the website was complete then we would place a 302 redirect on the old destination towards the temporary destination, for example:

• - www.mywebshop.com  > Website (being built, still in progress)
• - www.mywebshop.com/products/toys/cars > (Toys section, this was the URL used at one point)
• - www.mywebshop.com/toys/cars > (New projected destination, still under development so temporary url used)
• - www.mywebshop.com/temp/products/cars > Temporary toys section.
  The temporary redirect should go from the old url to the temporary url until the new section is complete.

There are hundreds of different situations that are ideal for temporary redirects. It is very important that temporary redirects are not used for a long period of time as they do not stand strong ground in Google’s natural search. Because the redirect is known to be temporary, Google knows that the URL structure is likely to change again, therefore its importance is reduced for being returned in natural search.

How can I tell if a redirect is temporary or permanent?

Temporary redirect header codes are returned as a code “302”, using a server header checker you can see what code is returned, if you see a 302 code then the redirect is temporary. Use the following URL to check the servers header code:

http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp

When is it ok to use a temporary redirect?

Temporary redirects are ok for short term URL restructures, for example, if the URL changes because of a website design change or site structure change then a temporary redirect is ok for short term use. Typically, many people that implement the 302 redirect leave it in place to long which is detrimental towards search engine rankings.
Temporary redirects are for temporary use, if implementing, ensure that the temporary redirect is only used for a short period of time, typically 4-6 weeks at the longest.

Why are temporary redirects risky to a websites ranking?

Google and other major search engines use the URL structure as a foundation in the search engine index, but only on the basis that the URL’s indexed are not frequently uprooted and changed. When implementing a 302 redirect search engines know that the URL redirected isn’t permanent, as a result this can cause unreliable results which search engines typically avoid.

Permanent 301 Re-direct

Permanent Redirect:

A permanent redirect is used to change the URL of a page on a permanent basis. Because of its header code, search engines understand that the moved URL will be moved permanently. Because the URL is moved permanently, search engines can update their index with the new URL in place, unlike temporary redirects, search engines class permanent redirects as a safer option since this prevents unreliable results.

How to check if a redirect is permanent:

Visit the URL below and enter the URL to check. If the code returned is 301 then this means that it has been redirected permanently.

http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp

Page by Page Redirects:

Redirects can be implemented site wide or page by page. When redirecting single pages whilst keeping the site structure is unlikely to have any impact on search engine rankings. Implementing page by page redirects is quick and easy to do and is a popular choice for those either redirecting one or more pages.

Sitewide Redirects:

Implementing site wide redirects is a riskier job as changing the whole URL structure can have a temporary knock on search engine rankings. When uprooting the whole URL, search engines have to update their indexes. When doing this, its advisable to create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google webmaster central. Its then important to keep an eye on webmaster central to ensure there is no index problems, or no loss of rankings caused by other issues.

An example of a 301 re-direct:

Below is a successful 301 re-direct implementation for a client of ours. The keyword and URLs are hidden to protect the identity of our client, however the modification was made towards the end of 2008. Future posts will concentrate on how to successfully implement a 301 re-direct, whether it be using php or if your website is hosted on IIS.

The travel sector is one of the most competitive arenas on the Internet and for the most successful sites it’s certainly one of the most lucrative.

The Internet has perhaps changed the travel industry more than any other. We no longer need to visit the travel agent to help us book a holiday and a flight. We conduct the research ourselves and regularly buy separate flights either for a city break or business trip.

With the advent of budget airlines such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet, price has become one of the main purchasing factors for the online user, and the airlines and online travel agencies know it. Unlike almost any other industry, the word “cheap” is one of the most sought after and prized keywords. (“Cheap” on Google)

Dominance and Fluctuation
As you can see from the chart below, Skyscanner and CheapFlights, two of the biggest names n online travel agencies have been consistently in the top 10 over this period. Travel supermarket has enjoyed similar success other than a slight blip in November 08, a fall that Easyjet also succumbed too. What did Google dislike at that time?

Keyword: cheap flights, search engine: Google UK | period: 01/04/2008 - 14/12/2008

More gradual success has come for flights.monarch which has been climbing since it went through a URL rename in the Summer of 2008, losing ground from its previous high before that time. Most surprisingly is Ryanair, who has not appeared in the top 100 of Google UK since July for this keyword.

The dramatic drop for Ryanair may be connected to this policy to punish 3rd party screenscrapers (Screen Scraping article).

However there are other reasons we have identified that have and will continue to significantly effect their positions until modified.

Ryanair.com – Line Tracker

url: www.ryanair.com, search engine: Google UK | period: 30/06/2008 - 31/07/2008

It is interesting to note that a few similar search terms on Ryanair produced very similar trends, a climb in early July and then a drop on 24 July. This would suggest that there is a site wide issue.

Bumpy Ride
Looking more closely at the November fluctuation, we notice that a lot of brands took a hit on 8/11/08 and then more so on 12/11/08. What was Google looking at?

Keyword: cheap flights, search engine: Google UK | period: 25/10/2008 - 26/11/2008

Google Trends

Google Trends
Below shows that “Cheap Flights” as a search term has a similar search rate as “Airlines”. This shows that the market as a whole has split into two sectors. The conventional carriers tend to position themselves in the Airline section, and the travel agents and budget airlines fight it out for “cheap flights”.

What we can tell from this data however is that both keywords are on the decline from their peak in 2006. One factor could be the fact that today the online searcher is more knowledgeable and undertakes more a descriptive search hoping to get a more accurate return.

If you would like to find out more and to receive a PDF of the IP-SEO Travel Sector watch, please contact us.