The act of Googling oneself has become one of our favourite guilty pleasures in this new digital age. We suppose it is an activity enjoyed by many but admitted by few. The reason people search for themselves is that they are curious about what other people will see when they search for their names.

We are all a little curious to ponder on what kind of information is circulating in the digital world about us, even worse, what if there is an inaccurate detail posted about us??.Learning how to perform a complete search for yourself with Google therefore makes sense in a world where everything is online (well almost!!)

What does Google have to say about you and how you could control it- is important to know and we need to understand this:

Listing Your Name:

First of all, make sure that you are among the top people in a search for your name. This is not so difficult when you have an unusual name but slightly harder when you have a more common name like Lisa Sullivan! If you do have a unique or less common name, a moderate amount of online activity will put you above the handful of people with the same name. On the other hand, if you have a familiar name, like Steve Palmer, you have to work especially hard to even be on the first page of listings since there are many more Steve Palmer’s active online.

For those who wish to increase their digital footprint, building and optimising a website helps in increasing the visibility. Social media sites are also a great way to start, so it is a good idea to have and maintain an active profile on several of the popular networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc

In order to assist people in googling their names, Google has introduced ‘Google Profiles’, which helps people to control how they will appear in Google searches for their names. You just need to create a profile and point it to other relevant sites for those looking for you. The Google profile provides you with a personalised page on which you can include links to your blog, Twitter feed or company website, plus share online photos and link to your other profiles on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

The more information you add to your Google profile, the higher your page is likely to be ranked on a Google search for your name and associated keywords.

Eliminating Unwanted Information

Even though you appear among the top most search results for your name or even if you come out first on the list, what comes up against your name might not be to your liking. What do you do?

There may be information about you which is incomplete or inaccurate. It is therefore important to take steps to rectify the situation. Contacting the website or company responsible for the error is often all it takes. In order to remove any obsolete information you could simply contact the people in charge of administering the space and ask them to remove or update the material.

Importance:

The ready availability of information on the Internet makes it easy for people to do free basic background checks on you or on other people before entering into business relationships. This is something you too should definitely do yourself before hiring anybody as an employee, consultant, or contractor or before entering into a business relationship.

So even though you have updated the information about you on the web and have taken measures to increase your search listings, you should maintain your online footprints by periodically performing searches on your name. Once a month is more than enough to ensure that your good name remains unblemished.

So take the next 2 minutes to run a Google search, or Yahoo or any search provider of your choice, and see what comes up

If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your website should be a direct reflection of you and your business. Creating a professional website takes a great deal of time and effort. The seven most important elements for online success, as there is much more to take into consideration than design, are:

1.Have a professional looking website:

If you are serious about creating a successful business which will stand the test of time, then you need to have your own “virtual presence”.

Your website is the most important sales tool you have. A professional website should be pleasing to the eyes, well organised, easy to navigate and load quickly.

2.Effective Content:

Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Whether it is your website, sales letters or advertisements, words play a major role in determining your success. The following details must be kept in mind while content writing:

Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention
Interest - Intrigue and create curiosity
Detail - Provide details about your product or service
Action - Call for action, phone, email, visit office or dynamic contact form.

3.Traffic Drivers:

Create a steady stream of traffic to your website. Give your visitors a reason to visit and continue to visit in the future. Blend your content in with the focus of your website and update it on a regular basis.

4. Search Engine Optimisation:

Design the website to rank high in the Search Engines. This involves much more than just including META tags. KEYWORDS, TITLE, IMAGE ALT tags, Text and the overall design, all play an important role in determining how your website will rank.

5.Reliance:

The visitors should know who you are. Provide complete information with respect to your company including, address, phone number and email addresses to request information and support.

Also, inform the visitors about their privacy through pages like Privacy Statement, Privacy Policy etc and let your visitors know how will their personal information collected through the website will be secured or used.

6. Gain Confidence:

Gain your visitors trust by displaying customer testimonials. This will help in boosting the potential customers’ confidence in you and your products or services.

7. Patience:

Be realistic in terms of your expectations. Online business can bring you a considerable income, but it needs investment of time and effort from you.

A professional website specifically designed to sell is one of the most important factors in determining your success. Take your time and make sure you’re looking at the complete picture before you begin as the success depends on it.

So what are Meta titles, descriptions, keywords etc?

It really is not as complicated as you might think. Let’s start by asking a very simple question will adding Meta titles, keywords, tags, descriptions make your site shoot up the serach engines to the top?

Easy to answer this, no! However don’t give up on them as they do hold importance to search engine rankings and SEO optimisation. The correct Meta titles and keywords will help the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo index your site and understand what your site is offering.

Let’s look at the different functions

1) Meta Title:
This is what it says on the tin, the title! Have a look at the website in the very top left hand corner of the browser window and you will see the Meta title.
What is best to put here? Our advice is simple, put exactly what the content on the page is about.
It should contain keywords, but don’t over complicate this as the title tag will be the first thing on your page.

If we look at the James Blake Internet site (www.jamesblakeinternet.com) at the top of the page you will see
Web Design UK / Website Development / SEO Company UK / Professional website design company

2) Meta description:
This is the part that tells us about the company.
Firstly and most importantly this is a real chance for you to engage and interest the consumer as it might be the first thing they read about your company. Don’t bore them with a load of keywords, the idea is that they will click and visit your site.

Each page should have a description and the key is to tell the audience exactly what’s on the page, ie a summary. This will increase the likelihood of people clicking through.

The description you provide for your page has to convince the person that you are providing exactly what they are looking for. If a user comes to your site and the Title and Description Tags don’t accurately match the content they actually find, you are less likely to be considered a reputable source of information.

The description for a website should be no more than 250 characters
Again let’s look at www.Jamesblakeinternet.com

James Blake Internet Services is a professional web design & development and SEO Company in London UK, We provide Services including shopping carts website …

3) Meta keywords:
Finally the content itself on your pages ! To increase the ranking and occurrence probability on a search engine, words relating to the website /company or business are added to the website.
For example lets look at James Blake site again on the home page content and highlight some of the keywords that relate to our business.

James Blake Internet Services is a leading provider of internet solutions for business of all sizes, offering professional online services from web design and development to complete interactive e-marketing.

Finally
Please remember that whilst useful, Meta tags are not a magic formula and in need to be used in part of a whole SEO strategy not in isolation.

Please feel free to call us on 0845 475 1302 for more information

Success for our SEO team

In terms of examples of success James Blake Internet have a few but I have taken the example below as the website recently was sold on the back of its SEO performance and think it’s a good example of James Blake Internet’s work.

Case Study - Avis Net Curtains - http://www.avisnetcurtains.com/

This is a Net Curtain business that had a small shop in North London. James Blake Internet got the website to teh top page and Number 1 on Google on a variety of the top keyword searches against much stronger and larger competitors (including national brands). The website proved extremely successful and the owner has just been sold to a competitor purely for its SEO value and ability to attract traffic.

James Blake Internet worked with the owner to understand the phrase that we all felt were most important to their business. James Blake didn’t need 1000’s of keywords, they actually just took 15 which initially is more than enough. The key was to get results on 1st page Google for most of them quickly as possible!

All the main SEO terms listed below for their industry they rank on Google 1st Page despite some heavy competition.

Keywords that were used in SEO Campaign
Net Curtains London
Net Curtains
Best Net curtains
Cheap Net curtains
Net Curtains UK
Net Curtains Shop
Net curtains online
buy net curtains
discount net curtains
buy net curtains

James Blake Internet achieved this by the same means as all their sites, having a close working relationship with the previous owner and understanding their business. This enables them to choose correct keywords and measure the effectiveness of our work continuously.