If you are listed on page one in the search engines for your target search terms, well done.  You now need to ensure that your listing gets clicked.   While statistics show that most searchers will click on the top listings there are still many listings on page 1 and you need yours to stand out. Here are some tips:

Title & Description – your page meta title and meta content description powers your search engine listing (most of the time).  This allows you to control what the search engines say about you.  It is important that your target search terms appear in both the title and description but do not stuff them in purely to get a better position.  Write titles and descriptions that are engaging and include a USP/benefit and call to action.  Keep the Title to about 72 characters and the description to about 160 to ensure all is seen in your listing.

Breadcrumb Navigation – If your website has sub pages behind core top level pages or includes a product database include breadcrumb navigation.  More and more you will see breadcrumb navigation popping up on the SERP’s .  They are there for 2 reasons – the user can easily see where they are in your site (or where they are going to if it shows in the SERP)  e.g. Home > Printers > Inkjet Printers  and the search engines can index the breadcrumb navigation and use it instead of using the url of the page e.g. http://www.domain.ie/233/11/9/canon.html  (not a real url – just a sample)

Site Links- although you don’t have control over these, you can make it easy for Google to add site links for your site. The only way to ensure your listing includes Site Links is to be seen as the most relevant page for that search and have a good structure on your website which will allow the search engines to add the links to the most relevant information. Read what Google has to say about Site Links http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=47334 

 Rich Listings - Google SERP includes rich snippets, this includes reviews from third party websites as well as their own Places listings.   Help Google enhance your listing, drive people to review sites and/or include a reviews section in your own website using somethings like www.LouderVoice.com or www.TrustPilot.co.uk.    Richer listings are bigger and give users a much better indication of how others endorse and rate your services.  Rich listings also have a higher click through rate. 

Promote Shares & Endorsements – The web is all about user generated content and endorsements.  The most important endorsement for your site is the New Google +1 button.  You can now not only endorse a page while on it but you can also endorse it from the search engine results page. If you can get visitors to +1 your page and listing then that listing will stand out from the crowd – showing users that you have quality content that others like and value.   www.google.com/+1/button/

I hope this helps, if you have any questions regarding your search engine optimisation why not call us on  062 67054 and ask your SEO questions. (and don’t worry, no heavy sales talk, just simple, easy to understand answers to your important questions)

Happy optimising

Google’s new +1 button is currently being rolled out on Google.com so it will be a while before we see it on Google.ie (most people’s default in Ireland).  When it comes you will be able to see the +1 beside the search engine listing, this allows people to see the content/listings you recommend but also you will be able to see what other people are recommending.   So no matter what you are looking for or selling, if people endorse it by clicking +1 it will make your listings stand out and more relevant to the user. Google have said in a recent blog post that the +1 ” will be one of many signals we use to calculate organic search ranking”.    This move is good as it will ensure that content with value gets the traffic it deserves.

To +1 listings you will have to set up a public profile and a new tab will store all the sites that you +1 making it really easy to find that great web page you were on last week.   Google are also rolling out a +1 button for your website so people can +1 the page/content while they are on it.

So what now, if you dont have content that people will want to +1 you need to start creating it.  This button will be powerful and will play a big part in people’s decision making process when choosing the listing they click on, it will also impact your search engine position so it cannot be ignored.

For more information read http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/1-button-adwords.html and http://www.google.com/+1/button/