The process of search engine optimisation is known to be a tedious process, but all hard work are rewarded, in the case of Search engine optimisation the reward is a huge amount of traffic going into your website, and getting potential clients or customers in the process. The process of search engine optimisation is rooted on the niche and the choice of keywords. This is because of the fact that the niche will define who your target clients are and the keywords would determine where your website is going to be classified. Identifying your niche can be dependent on the product or services that you would be offering and thus determination of which is straightforward. For keywords determination and identification the process is a little different, the determination of keywords should be done through research and not just any ordinary research but one that is made with a conclusive evidences on why such keyword should be used. Keyword research can be done by determining which keywords are raking in traffic and which are not, the keywords that should be researched upon must be related to your website’s theme and niche.

There is no actual formula for keyword research however the best way to do this is through your potential competition. There is always a high percentage that your niche or target niche is not unique over the internet, there is bound to be other people who have a similar website like yours. These already established websites with a high SERP are your target for keyword research. You have to develop your keyword research around the keywords that your competitors are using and check whether such keywords are very competitive or not. If the keyword is competitive meaning it has a high difficulty rate then this keyword should be last in your list, your main goal is to choose a less competitive keyword with a high search rate. Meaning, users would likely to enter such keyword however only a few websites are using such keyword thus less competition. Following this basic tenet in keyword research you are well on your way to developing a solid SEO campaign.

So there are many different content management systems available, each with there own pro’s and cons but today we are going to focus on the two largest PHP content management systems, Joomla (1.5+) and WordPress (2.8+)

At SEO Positive we use both of these to satisfy our clientele and even our own projects as they allow for quick development and total control over the content.

But which one should I use for my project?

This depends entirely on the goal of your project. Below we have outlined features of both CMS’

WordPress

• Instant blogging
• 1 minute to set up, with no knowledge of programming necessary
• Instant theme installation
• Search engines love WordPress
• Stable platform with very few bugs/catches
• Automatic plug in installation/updates and activation
• 100% control over the theme’s layout/colours etc
• JavaScript is jQuery powered

Joomla

• Stable platform to build any large scale website on
• Instant page creation
• Menu management
• Dedicated media manager (upload and download)
• Fairly easy plug in installation/management
• Instant theme installation
• Nearly 100% control over the theme and all layouts and colours
• JavaScript is powered by MooTools

They have a lot more features than the above mentioned ones, but I’m going to leave it there on that, if you still can’t decide what is best for your website perhaps I should explain a little more about them?

Joomla is a content management system, for building websites into. So being dedicated to a purpose would seem like a pro to add to the list, but it does come with its con’s. Joomla is technical to update and manage, with a complicated and sometimes confusing management area it can be tricky to get used to for anyone of a lesser technical mind where as WordPress is a blogging platform that happens to be fantastic for a quick website build with CMS. WordPress also has an incredibly easy to use management area, everything is laid out in a way that you can’t confuse and everything is labeled in a way you can’t find tricky.

Joomla stands trumps for large scale websites (30+ pages) and WordPress would suite more a smaller website (up to 30 pages) as it has no internal banner, footer or menu managers.

Joomla also stands up trumps with themes as you can use multiple themes throughout the site depending on what page your users are currently viewing/reading, with its banner, footer and menu managers and custom ‘modules’ feature there is nothing you can’t customise in Joomla and this wins it for us here at SEO Positive over WordPress as to build a bespoke website and give any client total control of there site we find Joomla perfect.

Search engine optimisation usually focuses on optimising websites for search engines, several strategies have been utilised in order to implement the SEO campaign. SEO consultants and SEO companies have been developing different strategies in order to efficiently increase the online presence or visibility of their target website. Among the strategies that are being utilised by SEO companies and SEO consultants are link building and content writing. However, because of the introduction of new Web 2.0 features and the fact that most SEO consultants and SEO companies have been utilising the same strategies, some SEO consultants and SEO companies have been developing other strategies where the new features of the Web 2.0 is being integrated.

One of the strategies developed by SEO companies and SEO consultants is the use of the social media network in order to facilitate or increase the traffic going into their target website. The following are some steps that may help in using the Social Network known as Facebook as an avenue for promoting your website.

1. Create a relevant Facebook Page, make use of the different tools the Facebook provides its users in order for you to create an engaging and relevant page. You may utilise discussion boards to hear out your users comments and suggestions, and use the YouTube Video Toolbox to upload and share relevant videos to your fans.
2. Utilise the Facebook’s news feed in order to make your page visible to others, once you have acquired friends on the social network their friends will be able to see your news feed even though you are not directly connected with each other.
3. Make your web page public. With Facebook forging a deal with the different search engines where Facebook profiles will be returned as a result to the search engine query. By default every facebook profile is public so keep it that way.

Using the social media networks may help increase your website visibility and traffic there is no reason why you should not try it.

Google, the search engine giant have been delivering free services to the public since its inception. Many of Google’s features are based on cloud computing and that is using applications over the internet. One of such application is the Google Docs which allows registered users to use word processing and spreadsheet applications online for free. The increase in the use of such application is based on the fact that Google is offering it for free and it is readily available for everyone to utilise. This move to integrate the internet into Google’s applications has proven to be a very viable and beneficial to both the search engine company and its users. Google’s Apps collection is also another resource that companies can go to instead of the normal desktop applications, their internet applications guarantees uptime and access on an online helpdesk for an online real-time troubleshooting access anytime anywhere.

Recognising that the use of the internet and its integration with software application is important, Microsoft, one of Google’s persistent competitor is also now jumping into the cloud bandwagon. With their release of the Microsoft Office Suite 2010 the Operating system giant has offered free online office applications called the Office Live. However, Microsoft still emphasise on the use of their application through the desktop or offline. Moreover, Microsoft would not want to offer all their services for free as it is on the software application business that the company is thriving earning around twenty billion a year.

With the presence of cloud computing one thing is clear for sure and that is the fact that the trend is really heading towards that direction and companies that will not be following the trend will surely be left behind in terms of users share and technology. Finally, cloud computing should also now be one of the concerns of SEO companies and SEO consultants in order to devise ways on how to capitalise on such trend.

Google is considered to be the giant in terms of the search engine market and rightly so because of the fact that it is ranked number one in terms of search engine users share. There are a lot of search engines out there but the main three or the most popular search engines are Yahoo, Google and Bing or Microsoft. These three have been constantly battling it out for the number one spot, however, up to the present Yahoo still remains to be on the second spot and Bing is at the third spot. This ranking has been true ever since Google took the lead from once number one, Yahoo. Google’s users share ranges from sixty to seventy percent (60%-70%) and the rest is being divided among the Yahoo, Bing and the other search engines. Microsoft, recognising that Google is the company to beat in the field of search engines, have started an aggressive media campaign and also have formed ties with the second in ranking in terms of users’ share, Yahoo.

According to the report or data gathered by comScore, during the month of April Google slightly fell in its share from the internet search market, garnering only 64.4% from a 65.1% from the previous month. On the other hand Google’s constant rivals have gained, Yahoo internet share rose to 17.7% from its 16.9% share during the previous month and Microsoft rose slightly to 11.8%. However, the gains that were gathered by Yahoo may only be short-lived because it can be attributed to the fact that Yahoo have added features during the month of April which may have greatly contributed to the increase of their internet users’ share.

One thing is clear though in this results and that is Google is still leading  in terms of internet users share and Yahoo and Bing still have a long way to go before they can topple the search engine giant.

Get all the buzzing updates of search engine optimisation, pay per click and search engine news from our dedicated SEO Blog

So, many of you like and use jQuery. Its a fantastic JavaScript library, built for designers and beginners to learn and quickly roll out massively interactive applications on bombastic scales.

But is it really necessary?

Well it depends on what you plan to do, are you using the Ajax functionality or simple tweens like fade’s and slide’s if so, then you’re better off writing your own JavaScript as the jQuery library is a massive lump in your downloads, whether your page is optimised no matter how many parallel downloads you can achieve this is still a large product to be downloading for all first time visitors. Sure there are work arounds like putting your script tags at the bottom of your page and other common optimisation techniques.

But does it make sense to have thousands of lines of code you know you’re never going to use for the sake of convenience?

For instance

document.getElementsByTagName('div').style.visibility='hidden');

Is exactly the same as

$('div').css({'visibility':'hidden'});

Except with the jQuery example, you’ll find theres a look up, function calls, instantiation etc slowing the whole process down. So in terms of convenience, is it actually that convenient?

At SEO Positive we use a mixture of jQuery, MooTools and bog standard JavaScript.

But I prefer to build all my own JavaScript tailored to the project, of course I do keep a library of my own tucked away for use which in future tutorials I will post as tutorials on here.

For convenience jQuery and MooTools are fantastic, for helping optimising your website they actually aren’t that great.

At SEO Positive we think really hard about convenience, speed and overall optimisation which all helps with the development of any project and the search engine optimisation which ultimately gives you the best product tailored to your needs. jQuery and MooTools are great, but building your own JavaScript is much more rewarding and overall better for your website.

Many online companies have turned to search engine optimisation companies in order to establish their presence online. The increasing needs for search engine optimisation has made SEO as a fast-rising online industry, however many unscrupulous people are taking advantage on this increased demand for search engine optimisation, this is why many companies are being victimised by fly-by-night SEO companies that conducts misrepresentations where the client-victim ends up in paying so much that what is fair without getting any legitimate result.

Many online companies fall prey to these unscrupulous SEO companies or SEO consultants because of the fact that they do not have any idea on what search engine optimisation is, one thing that will safe guard you in any sales or service transaction is by knowing the fair price for the specifications of the services or products that you are going to avail.

Here are several facts about Search engine optimisation that may help online companies in understanding SEO for better assessment on the fair price of an SEO service.

1. Search engine optimisation is a tedious and continuous process, SEO does not end after getting the ranking that you need or after building the link that you require. You have to maintain the ranking that you have therefore your SEO efforts must be continuous.
2. Black hat techniques never work, because of the continuous updating of search engines’ algorithms the different black hat techniques are now being recognised and thus if your SEO company would utilise black hat techniques on your website you risk having your website being suspended or banned by search engines.
3. Developing your website is the first step to SEO, especially at present because of the fact that Google has now included site speed as a ranking factor, therefore when you develop your website it should be developed in such a way that loading speed is considered.
4. Building a network of links is important and that you have to link to websites that have a reputable page ranking.
5. Finally content is very essential, content is considered a ranking factor thus you have to understand the importance of keeping your content fresh thus the importance of articles writers.

Improving search capability is the primary goal of every search engine company, this is why Google, Yahoo and Bing are constantly updating their search engine algorithm. The constant change and constant update in the algorithm of a search engine is tantamount to delivering to the users quality search results. As of the present many search engine users are preferring the use of Google as their search engine and one factor may be attributed to its ability to return quality results. This ability of Google to return quality search results is partly due to the fact that it refines its search engine algorithm and that every search result is based on the websites’ relevance to the search query, one main reason why Google enforces strict criteria for websites to follow or adhere to for it to be indexed or ranked. This is why many search engine optimisation companies opts to incorporate relevance and quality both in content and in their links into their target website.

In an effort to give users a more accurate result when searching for trivial questions, Google has intensified or reinforced the algorithm of Google Squared. Launched one year ago Google squared was designed to extract structured data from the web. Now Google engineers in New York were able to integrate new features to it by giving it the ability to sort and export data. Using this technology Google is now able to improve the accuracy of its search results based on the queries of the user. According to Google Squared executives that this accurate feature is now available for access both on the desktop and the smartphones. This feature works like a simple trivia book where users can ask trivial questions and they would get a clear, accurate and immediate answer.

With the launch of Apple’s version of a tablet PC many other companies are expected to follow. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Google Inc. have announced their plans on developing their own version of a tablet PC. It is thus believed that the Ipad is going to have tougher competition once the different company’s version of the tablet PC is launched. However, with the current specifications of the Ipad the other companies are going to have a tough challenge ahead. Even with the current state of the Ipad being the first full slate tablet PC analysts have said that the Ipad is not unbeatable and sooner or later a newer version will come out and overpower the reign of the Ipad.

In an interview by the New York Times with Google CEO Eric Schmidt  he revealed Google’s plan on developing their own version of the slate tablet PC. Schmidt revealed that Google particularly is experimenting on an Android based device, it is to be remembered that the android is Google’s version of their mobile operating system and it has been powering Googles’ mobile phones.

Hewlett-Packard on the other hand have announced last week that they are also developing their own version of the slate tablet computer, the announcement is done through blog posts and sample of their slate table PC was posted on YouTube. HP’s version of the slate tablet PC is expected to be released middle of this year.

Other companies like Dell computers Inc. also announced that they are developing their own version of slate tablet PC dubbed as streak. Apart from that Nokia and Lenovo are also said to be working on their own version of the slate tablet PC.

With  the different companies developing their own versions of the slate tablet PC it is expected that Apple’s Ipad will decline in sales once the different versions of the slate tablet PC are released by the said companies.

Get more great SEO related news from our search engine optimisation Blog.

Late last year many people were astonished by the announcement made by Google that it is developing a light weight, cloud based operating system called Google Chrome OS. This operating system announcement made many people excited especially so because of the fact that the operating system will be offered for free. The very reason also why Google’s competitor Microsoft is going to have to find a better service that will keep their clients, it should be taken into consideration that a free operating system sounds to be much more appealing than a paying for an operating system. Although Microsoft gains a lot from selling its operating system licenses many are now learning and recognising the importance and benefits of using free operating systems just like Linux. With the Google Chrome OS it is expected that the operating system will be rolling out new features such as cloud based applications and storage which thus makes more efficient use of one’s internet connection.

Acer, the Taiwan base computer manufacturer is set to showcase their new Netbooks that are incorporated with the Google Chrome Operating System. According to the computer manufacturer they will be launching and showcasing their Chrome OS powered netbooks at a tradeshow the Computex Taipei show on June 1-5. With these initial release many companies are also expected to follow suite as it was not only Acer who got a deal with Google but other netbook or computer manufacturers as well. With the cloud-based technology integrated with the Google Chrome Operating System it is expected that the use of the internet would then increase and this means  also an increase in the visitors or traffic which many SEO companies and SEO Consultants would want to divert to their target sites. Thus this release of the Google Chrome Operating System does not only affect one are in the information technology business but a lot of different areas.