1. Professional-looking design will make the site more inviting and encourage the sense that you are a business they want to deal with.
2. Easy navigation will prevent visitors leaving the site due to not being able to locate the information they require. Ensure your calls-to-action are clearly seen.
3. Fast loading makes navigation even easier and avoids frustration.
4. Consistency of design and usability to ensure visitors feel comfortable as they go deeper into your site.
5. Effective searching mechanisms. If your site has one, makes sure it works quickly and efficiently.
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Looking back at last years search engine marketing activity I have listed a number of trends to summarise how things are looking to head in the coming year, of 2007.

1. Usability and will become increasingly important for natural search .

A major part of the process of SEO focus will shift towards website functionality and usability for two reasons for 2 reasons;

First, search engine algorithms are increasingly taking user-experience into consideration when calculating ranking.

Secondly, mainstream advertisers are moving back towards SEO but those advertisers will require something stronger than Top10 placements to justify spending money on the mysterious marketing miracle SEO represents. When an SEO can tell his or her clients they will not only get strong placements but will also get a website redeveloped specifically to increase conversions, that SEO will make more sales.

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Does it matter if i change my host from a UK to a US host, but keep the domain address the same, like www.website.co.uk?

More web sites than you think change their IP addresses by moving to new servers each day. As long as your IP address doesnt change on a daily basis the web sites pagerank and rankings will not be affected dramatically.

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Myths, Large Site Launches, and Google Images

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3583760678227172395

Some interesting points raised here for up to date SEO information

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is all about the technical enhancement of your web site code. Also link building - The process of creating inbound links to owns website. This can be done reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is pay per click (PPC) sponsored adverts on search engine results pages. In which payment is based on the number of times the website is selected (clicked) from the results list. Is used in paid placement advertising and paid inclusion. Also known as cost-per-click listings (CPC).

They are quite different types of marketing, ultimately both though draw users and prospective business to your web site.

To increase your organic search engines listings as well as getting users driven to your site:

Get links from press releases and focus on relevant business directories. For example, Google News and NewsNow

The Search engines are changing their alogorithms very often, which means the way they rank web sites can be different depending on varying factors, such as web content, backlinks, etc. This can very often be very complex to understand.

To deal with new alogorithm patterns, resubmission and reoptimisation is required of your web site. With a keyword review for example.

SEO: is an ongoing process, rather like the myth build a web site and they will come, you can’t just do a one off initial campaign and leave it. If you are selling a product online, it is in your interest to invest time in reporting to see whether you are listed higher than your competitors.

SEM: Up to 60% of users to a Google results page do not click on sponsored PPC links. They trust more in natural search results. Therefore, natural/organic SEO is more cost effective than PPC in the long term strategy.

If you have a strong brand it would be more cost effective to choose 3rd position in the sponsored ads as people tend to compare the top three.

To aid success in an SEM (PPC) campaign:

• Produce relevant web content.
• Understand conversion rates and margins
• Understand the search market place within your sector
• Take seasonality into account, eg: “loansâ€? best keyword after new year.
• Deep link advert to relevant page content, eg: item description
• Set clear objectives and keep testing them
• Analyse your results - then track, measure and optimise!
• From this adjust your PPC advert fees accordingly. If a keyword is working, increase the fee, if it is not lower the fee.
  

The key for both SEO and SEM is understanding the strengths and weaknesses in the keywords you have selected for web content and sponsored advert text.

Ask yourself every month “so what?”, and “what do these results mean?”.

Perhaps there are any keyword phrases that your competitors are not using that you can take advantage of.

In conclusion, if you have both good organic listings and good PPC position for keyword phrases it can be very effective and a good strategy to follow.

An SEO package from Callender Creates not only advises you of the best practices, we can also track and report on the position of your web sites. To make sure you stay on the first results page.

Our DMOZ listing for Callender Creates
We havent included the very long address, if you visit this page you will see that we are listed deep in the DMOZ directory.

DMOZ are known, like other directories to feed the search engines like Google with these links. And can increase your incoming links with some value.

DMOZ is and always has been a special case, heres why:

1. It is free to get listed
2. It’s the biggest open directory
3. It is edited by humans>> Humans dont always follow a set pattern. Why one web site maybe listed and another isnt, isnt always clear. The bad press DMOZ gets by some other SEO’s and web types may be due to the amount of emails from people who submit their sites multiples times to DMOZ as well as spam. They are basically up to their necks!

Ways of getting listed in DMOZ

• You can also get links from sites that are already listed there, but that’s not guaranteed.
• Try not to submit again, just be patient, the spiderbots will come when they are ready.

Further reading

Here’s a good article on SEO Chat > Choosing the Right DMOZ Directory Category