Back To Basics

Well I made it back from Cornwall in one piece – despite driving last Friday through some of the worst weather to hit the UK for over one hundred years. I found out later that if I had set off one hour later I would have spent the whole night on the M5 motorway in Gloucester!

After stopping at 3 service stations to try and find a travel lodge for the night I was directed towards a hotel off the beaten track (near Glastonbury) where we spent the night before traveling on next morning. All the travel lodges were full and so where most of the hotels nearby – it was only luck that a receptionist gave us a hotel address.

What the weather this weekend showed is that you need to have a backup plan. The same can be said of search engine optimisation. Search engines are like the weather and can change very quickly so your position in the search engines can change moment by moment.

Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what’s going on with any of the search engines when your search engine results placement (SERPs) seem to be all over the place. Every search engine is always tweaking and improving its algorithms (the program that it uses to decide your search position) , sometimes several times a day, in order to ensure they’re putting the most relevant results in answer to a searcher’s query.

At Customerstreet we’ve allowed for this by placing our customers in not just one directory but three seperate high profile directories Ufindus , Smile Local and More UK plus many of our websites have the option to appear in a dedicated trades portal.

Trade websites are becoming one of the most popular routes for internet users. They are simple to use and dedicated to the service being searched for. Customer Street have built online directories for almost every trade on the internet.

By giving our customers more exposure through listings in up to four major directories we’re helping to plan for those stormy times in search when your listing may not be as high as you wish it to be. By having listings in more than one directory Customerstreet is giving you more chance of being found for different search terms which can’t be a bad thing can it?

Welcome

Welcome to Customerstreet’s search engine optimisation blog. My name is Adrian Berry and I work as search manager for Customerstreet – one of the UK’s leading new media advertising services.

With nearly a decade’s experience in search engine optimisation (SEO) and online marketing I felt it was time that I passed some of my knowledge on to Customerstreet customers.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be explaining SEO in more detail, how it’s important to your business and why it needs to be done. I’ll explain the basics of SEO in simple terms so there’s no need to worry about technical terms and confusing diagrams.

More importantly I’ll explain how you can improve your position in the search engine listings and how you can improve the number of people that contact you via your website.