Google not only a great search engine, they also help you in many ways with optimising your site.

Google SEO tools, yes they do have ways to help you in obtaining better rankings, in more ways than you might know about.

Google SEO tool No1# -

Google Insights for Search, This really handy tool will let you peak under the bonnet as it were, into what people are searching for and what the demographics are for the search term.

You can see in the image the peaks along the time line each one of those highest peaks in January and the lowest points are August. Up here in sunny Queensland after all the floods going on you may also see a distinct rise in the search for termite control or pest control.

This is the worst time of year for termite problems, and after all the Brisbane floods it makes the situation even worse with more timber laying around for the hungry little termites to live on. Our weather bureau has even seen clouds of termites on their radar screens.

Understanding the demographics of search helps the business owner target their marketing, for instance a pest control company would not be smart to spend big on termite control advertising during August. Gogle insight is just that it gives a great insight to search.

Google SEO tool No2# -

Google Adwords keyword tool - Originally designed for helping you chose words for your PPC campaign this tool is very good for helping in the process of keyword selection for your SEO campaign. Now again if we type 'pest control' into the keyword selector tool we are presented with a list of suggestions. We can see that 'pest control' has the most search volume and advertiser competition volume so we would call this a primary keyword phrase.

Because this is a primary term it will be one of the harder terms to rank for as with high search volume and competitor competition so it could be prudent to put this on the SEO long term goal and look for a less traffic and lower competition phrase. Looking a little further down the list we can see 'house pest control' although the adwords competition has dropped on the phrase how will it go for us in the SEO market? We can see that Google gives us nearly 17 million results for 'pest control' and for 'house pest control' we are presented with around 6.6 million results.

So we can comfortably say 'house pest control' is still quite a high competition phrase and still could be considered a primary phrase maybe a secondary. We can keep looking down the list and find 'pest control spray' still with a healthy search volume less competitive in adwords how does it go in Google search? 2.7 million results now we are well into easier to rank for terms now and this we will look at using on the short term goal list for our SEO campaign.

We can keep using this technique to build our basket of keyword choices, what we are wanting to do is set-up long term SEO goals, medium term goals and short term goals. This technique allows for a steady growth in our SEO campaign, if we just try and optimise for the high traffic high competition 'primary' keyword phrases we are going to be looking at a long road to increased traffic.

Google SEO tool No3# -

Google analytics is our data friend letting us see all kinds of useful information, where people have come from, how long they stayed and where did they go. No SEO campaign is complete without a good source of analytical data and it is in our opinion Google analytics is one of the best.

Simple enough for the new user and detailed enough for the long time web master Google analytics is a must for any business wanting to increase their search engine directory exposure.

Google SEO tool No4#

Google webmaster central, this handy resource is on the must be set-up list this is where you add your XML site map to allow the Google bot an easier more direct way to find your content pages. Furthermore Google web master central is full of interesting data, how many inbound and outbound links our website pages have. Crawl statistics, index statistics and top search queries are among the useful data held here.

Google SEO 101 starter guide

Google help us achieve good results in a varied list of ways recently they have released a 101 of SEO to aid in you building the right content and site the first time. This guide will hold you in good stead for self SEO work, download it in PDF format.

• Google search engine optimisation starter guide

Keyword research is the fundamental foundation of a successful website, get it wrong and you will be left with little traffic flow or traffic not suited to your market. You need a good mix of keywords in all three categories, 'primary' 'secondary' and 'the long tail of search' understanding how to use the research is paramount to success.

It is fine and dandy to want to rank for the most competitive terms but the reality is depending on your market, this could take a considerable amount of time. Furthermore a substantial investment will often be needed to attain the top positions for the most competitive terms.

By using the technique of the three categories you allow an increase in traffic and conversion relating to more sales, this allows you to still work on the high competition phrases. With the added traffic and conversion ranking for the primary terms becomes a more obtainable goal, with profits to fund the campaign.

Monday 22nd September 2008 Google wrote a post that fundamentally is wrong for many reasons, while at the same time does have some foundation, although not much!

For some strange reason a post written on Monday by Juliane Stiller and Kaspar Szymanski, of the Search Quality Team at Google, did not think before hey put finger to keyboard and created a post that sparked outrage and angry comments. You can read the entire article by following this text.

We've come across many webmasters who, like our friend, believed that static or static-looking URLs were an advantage for indexing and ranking their sites. This is based on the presumption that search engines have issues with crawling and analysing URLs that include session IDs or source trackers. However, as a matter of fact, we at Google have made some progress in both areas. While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough (CTR) rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking. Providing search engines with dynamic URLs should be favoured over hiding parameters to make them look static.

Firstly the motivation behind the post by Google can be seen in a different light if you are thinking in terms of marketing. Google is not wrong in the post just did not think of the bigger picture before it was written, they also are quite self serving and don't care that the fact is they are not the only search engine in this world.

Google are coming in on the tac that best suits their objectives, when a URL is poorly rewritten or worse has errors it impedes their ability to find the relevant content for their users, and hurts the authors you.

However, the fact that some developers incorrectly create rewrite rules does not mean that sticking with dynamic written URL's is now the 'best practice.' It simply means you have to do it the right way. Furthermore it creates even more contradiction when the exact post Google has written uses a rewritten URL.

Firstly let us look at the pros and cons of dynamic URL's and rewritten or static URL's

Pros of dynamic URL's:

1. Google only one of the four major search engines) says they can effectively crawl and index them

Cons of dynamic URL's:

1. Lower click-through rate in the search results, in emails, and on forums/blogs where they are cut and pasted
2. Virtually impossible to write down manually and share on a business card or read over the phone to a person
3. Gives the user no idea of what it is they are about to read, or if it corresponds to their actual query
4. A greater chance of cutting off the end of the URL resulting in a 404 or other error when copying or pasting
5. Lower keyword relevance and keyword visibility
6. Hard 'if not completely impossible' to manually remember
7. Not usable in branding or print campaigns
8. Will not typically carry optimised anchor text when used as the link text (which happens frequently due to copying & pasting)

Pros of Static URL's or rewritten URL's:

1. Higher click-through rates in the SERPs, emails, web pages, etc.
2. Higher keyword prominence and relevancy
3. Easier to copy, paste and share on or off-line
4. Easy to remember and thus, usable in branding and off-line media
5. Creates an accurate expectation from users of what they're about to see on the page
6. Can be made to contain good anchor text to help the page rank higher when being linked to
7. All 4 of the major search engines (and plenty of minor engines) generally handle static URLs more easily than dynamic ones, especially if there are multiple parameters

Cons of Statics URLs:

1. You could not implement the url rewrite module properly which in turn makes your content hard to find and could create resource not found 404 errors

In the article Google even admit that a rewritten URL does increase CTR (click through rate) to some extent, also it does have beneficial gains in ranking of the page with the rewritten URL. Furthermore Google is not the only search engine to be considering here, for instance Yahoo places more weight in keywords placed in the URL than Google does, so by not using rewrite URL's you could in fact be making it harder to rank in other search engines.

We also have to look at other factors, just because Google can read and index the URL is a small part of the overall picture. It goes into usability and branding, simplicity of telling someone an easy to remember URL. We implement rewrite solutions on our clients sites and own own constantly, and in our own experience, CTR is higher, rankings are higher and usability is higher. It makes sense to use a URL that displays as xwz.com.au/BMW-Used-Cars then xwz.com.au/index.php?/11008/cat=34?&page=284jht? try putting that on a piece of marketing media or a business card.

Just because something works ok one way, does not mean it should not be done the correct and easier to use way. Come on Google you are not the only search engine in the world, and there are factors far more important like usability, and common sense to think of.

Google SEO what is it, and how can you use it to drive targeted traffic to your website, that turns into real sales and customers.

We all have heard of Google and most of us are familiar with the term SEO or search engine optimisation as we used to search for, before becoming savvier. Google SEO in a nutshell is a site optimised for the Google search engine, that in tern has the keyword phrases your market is searching for displaying high up in the search directory, hopefully on the first page.

Using the Internet to gain market share, is more than a passing phase, and in many channels is being reported that in the not to distant future search optimization, will be an unobtainable service for the small business due to high competition for the elusive page one in the search directories. With SEO becoming one; if not the fastest growing marketing spends, it is little wonder everyone is searching for information on what it is all about.

If your business deals with products and services and is not taking advantage of what Internet marketing can offer your business, it could be said you are setting your company up  to take a fall. Problem with not being optimised is from generation Y onwards the internet is their preferred method of finding goods and services before buying or in many cases the final purchase is facilitated via the internet.

Allot of business owners are coming to grips to the fact that understand it or not website optimisation is something their company needs to look into. If we look at the graph below we can see a steady increase in search traffic associated with the term SEO. If that graph was your profit margin curve you would be a very happy chap, and to be honest if you are concentrating a good percentage of your marketing spend into on-line related marketing than this could be a true representation of your market share and profitability.

I personally am along way from generation Y but even I turn to the internet before making purchases. Why? Because it is easier costs me next to nothing and I can be educated on where I wish to buy, how much I should be paying for the service or product and the closest place I can buy this product or service. When the slightly older generations such as myself are turning to the convenience of the search engine to find what I need, then you must sit up and take notice because the younger generations think nothing of it, it is natural to them like breathing.

If we turn to the second graph below this illustrates the search volume for the different states of Australia, as we can see every state has an interest in SEO except Northern Territory. What this should be telling you as a business owner is that your competition is out searching to become educated about natural targeted traffic generation. We can see that New South Wales is leading the way on interest with Victoria closely following suit, Queensland and South Australia are neck and neck with Western Australia closely behind and Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania taking up the rear. With the whole country researching online marketing, a great percentage has to be business getting educated about the subject.

If we now turn to the last graph we can see what other terms are being searched for, Google SEO is leading the way followed by 'web seo' 'australia seo' 'seo sydney' is attracting allot of interest. We then start the move down into 'seo marketing' 'search engine optimisation' has fallen a great deal now as people search for the abbreviation instead. To the right we see the breakout terms these are the emerging search terms that are running up the searched for ranks at Google, we see 'wordpress seo' wordpress being the worlds most popular blogging platform. You can read an article we wrote about the benefits of you business having a blog. We could keep going on the terms people are searching for but as you can plainly see it is a very searched subject and the searched phrases varied but all in connection with education about the subject.

What do the numbers on the graph mean?

The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don't represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100; each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. The numbers next to the search terms above the graph are summaries, or totals.

Read more about how we scale and normalize the data.

Simply your business needs to address natural organic ranking, as not being optimised you are losing market share and missing out on an entire client base looking for your goods and services. Web based marketing achieves low CPA (cost per acquisition) organic traffic continues to grow your brand and market exposure. Internet marketing is more cost affective than any print media and is a far better investment than a yellow pages advert, the benefits of organic traffic are so great that once you have started down the Google SEO road and see your market exposure growing rapidly you will be left wondering why you left it so long to take advantage of this business changing marketing resource.

What should you do next?

Talk to us we can take all the stress away of missing out on this amazing marketing resource, with a professional scalable solution tailored to your business. First we find out what your market objectives are, and tailor a plan meeting your market objectives, we offer complementing marketing options, such as printed mail out campaigns, promotional staffing, street level marketing, brand exposure with those nifty cars and peddle bikes you have seen getting about.

We have a host of options to lift and build your brand, or we can simply work an on-line marketing campaign. We tell you in easy to understand language exactly what we do to your website to gain search directory exposure, and lift your rank in the search directory's. You have a single point of contact your marketing campaign manager, we are here to make your business grow, simplicity of good service is a key to our success and your market dominance. Call us today on 1300 78 50 60 and discover a whole new market.