Tag: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The secrets of SEO success – to conclude

By Peter Morrow March 14, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.

Most recently we talked about punctuation, here we conclude…

We know you’re busy and we all love to remember a few golden rules. These are the golden rules to writing good SEO safe copy, as we at Reverse Delta see them.

Content is king
Content is not for you – it’s for the end user – give them what they want!
Around 300 words for blogs and news, while for job descriptions between 500 and 2000 words
Keywords for page titles, keywords in headings, keywords in links.
Use pages for discreet content items
Remind yourself about plain English rules from time to time – it’s easy to forget sometimes.

If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.

Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – technical and syntax considerations

By Peter Morrow March 13, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.Most recently we talked about layout, here we explain why you need to get punctuation right…The search engines read and store website content in particular ways and there are some basic rules to adhere to.PluralsDon’t worry too much about how the search engines read plurals. They don’t. They see “Job” to be pretty much the same as “Jobs”.Offline updatesIt’s often good to write the bulk of your text in a simple text editor (like Windows ‘notepad’) to concentrate firmly on the message, rather than presentation. Draft content should just be text anyway. Finessing and formatting should be done within your site’s content management system itself (if you have one) – this includes building links and using header tags.You should avoid using ‘intelligent’ word processors to prepare your text off-line. Microsoft Word, for example, can auto correct some things that shouldn’t be auto corrected for the web! For example, “The Designer’s Manual” is not the same as “The Designer‘s Manual”. Look carefully at the quotation marks and the apostrophe. Search engines understand the apostrophe symbol ’ but don’t read the similar symbol ‘. It sounds picky, but there might be an important keyword to you with an apostrophe in it.Hyphens and underscoresSearch engines understand hyphens and usually view them as spaces-between-words. There is evidence that using/not-using them will generate high relevant match, but not exact. Search engines find underscores harder_to_understand and try to read them as one word – avoid using underscores.Next article we’ll remind you of the key things things to consider for SEO success…If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – the right size, layout & place

By Peter Morrow March 12, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.Most recently we talked about the importance of keeping it plain, here we explain layout…On the web, we’ve all got an incredibly short attention span.On your site’s front page it is essential to have good body content of at least 200 words. Search engines use hierarchy on your site so if you put all the best bits further ‘down’ your pages, you’re missing a trick.Split long paragraphs up into simple two or three sentence paragraphs. Make use of sub headers above each paragraph (using h2, h3 tags, etc). Header tags are seen to define a page’s content to a search engine, so they’re of much more value than the body of your text.Different browsers interpret the Header tags in different ways. The format for them is always the same though:This is the HeaderThere are several different preset sizes for header text using tags. They range from H1, to H6. You should use them to highlight your chosen keywords, and try to avoid fluff words – remember, you are writing for people.Read on: Header tags are there to help you – w3schools are a great resource with simple guide to how these work http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_hn.aspUse of bold to emphasize words – makes it both easier to read and there is evidence that emboldened words are given a higher relevance weighting by search engines.Next article we’ll talk more about punctuation…If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – keeping it plain

By Peter Morrow March 11, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.Most recently we talked about page titles, here we discuss the importance of keeping it plain...No-one likes drivel. We won’t name or shame anyone here, but there is a great deal of it about. If your content’s not relevant to your readers, they won’t entertain reading it, but even if it is relevant, they can still be put off reading it if it’s not easy to read. Some simple rules:Use short sentences – it’s obvious. People get tangled up in long ones! Use active verbs – not terms like “two designers were recruited” – just things like “we recruited two designers” Careful with jargon – okay, some terms are appropriate for the reader, but always think carefully who that reader is. Be direct – don’t mess about with “If you’re interested, why not telephone us for further information on how to obtain a quote”, when “Phone for a quote” will do. Try not to use nominalisations – nominalisations are abstract nouns made from verbs. (Okay, so that doesn’t sound like plain English). I used one in this rule. I should have said ‘Try not to nominalise”. Use things like “The project is complete” rather than, “The project has reached completion” Use lists – on a web page, lists break up content with all-important white space. They also help make tricky, long sentences easier to read. Research has shown people do not read vast amounts of text on websites – bite size chunks will do. Structure your website so that you introduce larger pieces of text with a short paragraph and a “more >” link so that only those who wish to read it (or print it) will see all of it. Use ‘we’ and ‘you’ – not ‘our customers’ or ‘the company’, etc. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself – if it helps you get your point across, and it’s not too annoying to the reader, then you can use repetition. Keyword repetition is not optional, but essential! (see relevant keywords).Read on: The Plain English campaign has an excellent series of guides on writing Plain English. http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/free-guides.html Next article we’ll talk more about page layout…If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector. Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – using page titles

By Peter Morrow March 8, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.Most recently we talked about relevance, here we discuss the use of page titles...Keep your page title under 60 characters. Any characters over 60 will be missing on the search results and there is good evidence that page titles this threshold have significantly less clicks. For example, if you’re a recruitment agency with a job board, don’t use the title ‘Jobs’ for all of your jobs pages. Make all of your jobs in your database have their own page, and make those pages have their own (keyword rich) title. “Permanent Graphic Designer vacancy in Wandsworth, London” is full to bursting point with keywords, makes good sense and is only 56 characters or 50 not counting the spaces. Don’t necessarily waste this title space using non-keywords such as your company name (unless of course it is a brand name that people are searching for), or common web words like ‘About’. Use things like “About our Design Jobs”.Using headingsKeyword-rich, naturally. Make use of sub headers above each paragraph (using h1, h2, h3 tags, etc – see below). Header tags are seen to define a page’s content to a search engine, so they’re of much more search engine value than the body of your text.Using linksLike headings, links have more ‘value’ to search engine results, so use keywords in your link to link to pages rich in those keywords. “Click here” is next to useless to take you to your shop page on an e-commerce site. “Shop” is better, “Buy toy Batman cars in the UK’s only specialist Batman memorabilia shop” is even better as anchor text, if that’s what you think people might be searching on. It also helps the search engines understand what the page on the end of that link is about.Keyword innovationOnce you start thinking in a SEO way, you’ll soon become savvy about how to get results in. Some people even use deliberate misspelling, which sounds like a sin in a writing guide, but could help double up keywords – but be careful where you use them. An example might be in a commonly misspelt word – like occasionally using “Chauffer” on your site as well as “Chauffeur”. Be careful with this technique… you don’t want to sound daft!Spelling differencesBritish and American English have many examples of words spelt slightly differently. Ie the word ‘colour’ in British English is spelt ‘color’ in American English. This is a complex area to get right, but use this simple rule to help you - decide who and where your target market is located and use the appropriate spelling. Next article we’ll talk more about page keeping it plain…If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – relevant keywords

By Peter Morrow March 7, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.Most recently we talked about Keywords, here we explain why being relevant is important...Sorry if I’m repeating myself but content is so important. They won’t come to you if you use bland, general keywords. For example, Google currently [February 2019] returns the following search engine results for these searches:These are all massive numbers (thanks Google for Jobs!) but you can see the point we’re making - more specific search queries give fewer results.Not many people might search on “SW17 South London Graphic Design Jobs”, but if you’re in the SW17 postcode area, it’s worth putting that into your keywords and your body text as well as “Wandsworth”.Longer keyword phrases often mean higher intent. For example, “design jobs” is window shopping or browsing type search – it may be considering a career change – but someone searching for “SW17 South London Graphic Design Jobs” most likely has a high intent to “buy” (or in this case find a new job). With this longer keyword phrase, you’d get less visits from the search engines, but more chance of conversion into business.Break into bite size chunksWhen the phrases get too long, it is often best to break them up. Search engines don’t pay attention to standard punctuation marks or line breaks. They read right through full stops, semi-colons, hyphens, commas without hesitation. That means you have a lot more flexibility than you might think.For example, if the key phrase you wanted to use was “design and architecture recruitment London”, it might be cumbersome or even impossible to make this readable in a normal body of text. By breaking it up with some punctuation, it can sound perfectly natural.“…our website hosts the very latest design and architecture jobs. London’s got so much to offer talented designers…”How special are you?As well as geographical constraints where they affect your work, you should pick keywords that people will search that enable your business to stand out. If there are any niches you occupy, make sure you write it down and keep writing it down! Don’t try to compete with basic keywords on their own – you won’t get on top of Google’s search results for a search like “Jobs”, but you might get nearer for niche searches like “Architecture Jobs in Wandsworth”.Next article we’ll talk more about page titles…If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – keywords & key phrases

By Peter Morrow March 6, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO and the basics of writing in SEO language so you can get it working for you and your business.

Most recently we talked about Content being King, here we explain why Keywords are so important...

Keywords are the core content of your site and you should know your keywords. If you’re responsible for writing and updating your web site and don’t know your organisations keywords, then you should make it your first priority. They should also be reviewed regularly as your business develops through time. Keyword suggestion tools exist on the web – sometimes they can be useful, but some are better than others. One of the original and best ways of defining your keywords is to ‘brainstorm’ your own staff – and sometimes your clients too.

If you have access to your website statistics, you can see what search results may have already brought people into your website. This can be handy for helping you to build on good keywords, and also to identify new ones if they’re part of a longer search phrase.

Number of words

This depends on what your writing, for

Landing page content aim for at least 200 words
Blogs & news articles aim for around 300 words. Alternatively if it is a detailed article, break it up into separate postings; the key here is to find the natural breaks.
Job descriptions aim between 500 and 2000 words. There is evidence that finding the right balance between relevant detail and being concise will increase applications by up to a third.

Key phrases

Key phrases should be used too, wherever possible. Key phrases are groups of two, three or four words in the order of how you anticipate people might put them into a search engine. For example, “Our site is packed with loads of London design jobs, updated daily” is capturing the three key words “London”, “design”, and “jobs” as a key phrase that someone is likely to type into a search engine, i.e., “London Design Jobs”

Next article we’ll talk more about relevant keywords…

If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.

If you're interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website please contact me at peter.morrow@reversedelta.com

The secrets of SEO success – Content is King

By Peter Morrow March 5, 2019

In this article I aim to explain the importance of content for SEO so you can get it working for you and your business.
Most recently we introduced you to the importance of Content, here we go further...

People look for their content – not your content.
If you grasp this, then you grasp how important SEO is. SEO is about ensuring that your content finds the right people looking for that content. It’s not about attracting the most amount of visits per se. Ten million visits is impressive, but if only 1 job seeker applies for a job, then the excess was a wasted effort. It’s about connecting the right audience to your content through what they search. Success is 10 job seekers visiting your site today and all 10 apply as they have the relevant skills and experience for the jobs they found.
Talk to any SEO consultant and they will tell you that the mantra is “content is king”. There is a good, logical explanation for this; the search engines are there to help their users find what they’re looking for, and so they ‘crawl’ the web, indexing what they see to be the content of your site. If you have content rife with the words that people are searching for, then the search engines think your page is important to their search, so it ‘ranks’ higher.
At this point we need to raise the issue of conflict of similar pages. If you create many similar pages (identical or practically identical with one word different) each with a separate URL, then the search engines will have a conflict of which page is more important and will rank those pages lower, potentially pulling your website ranking down too. Example below
A retailer creates 4 pages called:

Shoes
Men’s Shoes
Women’s Shoes
Kid’s Shoes

Unless connected properly, each page could cannibalise each others search engine’s ranking.
Using keywords and key phrases in strategic ways helps you to gain and to retain these rankings. They’re not an issue that you can tag onto your website – those keywords and key phrases must under-pin your content and site structure. We’ll come on to that a bit later, but first, let’s remember some of those all-important rules about writing good, sensible English!
Next article we’ll talk more about keywords…
If all of this sounds too complicated or time consuming, we work closely with Distinctly, an SEO agency with considerable experience in the recruitment sector.

Interested in an SEO compliant recruitment website? Please contact me at sales@reversedelta.com or call +44 (0)8000 199 737 or for more information visit https://reversedelta.com

SEO Ranking factors 2018: What to focus on, what to ignore, what to avoid

By Dave Haygarth June 13, 2018

We so often get asked and we so often say 'what's right today may not be right tomorrow'. SEO still has its golden set of rules (We've been saying Content is King for over ten years now), building well optimised websites is one thing, but getting the right content is different and sometimes outside of our control!.It's good when these sites pull 'peer reviews' together from lots of trustworthy sources. The 100+ SEO Success Factors infographic here is highly recommended for both developers and content creators alike. So now you know. (For 2018, anyway).

How can recruiters win from Brexit?

By Phil Heaton July 20, 2016

A guest blog this time from our Creative Director, Phil Heaton and a topical one. Phil has designed most of our top end sites and worked with our leading clients to define their brands and the messages they offer to clients and candidates. He knows recruiting.Phil asks: "Brecruitment. How will Brexit affect recruitment?" James Caan says Brexit’s hurting. Hiring decisions are on hold and all his recruitment firms are suffering.Is this the end of Britain’s ‘Jobs Miracle’? Or will a more can-do attitude carry the day?Here at Reverse Delta we’ve been supporting the growth of recruitment businesses since 2003. Together we weathered the bad times of 2008-12 and many of our early clients have gone from strength to strength. Some are now on their second or third generation of recruitment websites with us.It’s no great insight that in times of uncertainty the permanent market seizes up, with all the action in temp and contract placements. More useful: how to make the most of this?What definitely won’t change is that employer’s staffing demands will be increasingly fluid and eleventh hour.Finding and placing better quality candidates, more quickly, more effectively and more efficiently is the key to success. Being able to rapidly fill, filter and deploy a better talent pool means using web-based technology in four vital ways: 1. Attract talent Smarter jobs marketing. And reputation marketing too. As Google gets ever more ‘human’ with its algorithm – and web channels increasingly fragment – SEO tinkering yields dwindling returns. As do Jobs Boards; why pay out to boost their talent pool?By leveraging technology you can implement a more holistic and smarter jobs and content marketing strategy – to quickly enhance YOUR talent pool and YOUR reputation. 2. Engage talent Being attractive is one thing – being really engaging is something else. Your website has less than 3 seconds to make a winning first impression – anywhere, on any device. Cut to the chase quickly with relevant content (guess what, jobs mostly) that is easily found, smartly presented and gives a flavour of why you’re better.In short, your website has less than 3 seconds to answer the question: “Are they best for me?” 3. Convert talent to candidates You’ve shown them yours, now you need to know about them. Your website needs to work hard at this so you don’t have to. It should be encouraging interaction to build and update as complete a candidate profile as possible – in a friendly, easy, inviting way – and getting that information into your database pronto.The less time you need to spend on resourcing, the more you can profit from recruiting. 4. Retain the relationship We’re big on candidate retention. Keeping your talent pool close and exclusive is a no-brainer. But how many people in yours haven’t heard from you or been in touch in months? Years?It can be a fine line between staying in touch and stalking, but using tech right means you can keep being friendly in a meaningful, helpful and mutually rewarding manner.We know the UK’s recruitment sector. And we believe it can make a go of Brexit – not that it Caan’t. To find out how our complete web know-how can help your recruitment business thrive, just get in touch with Phil Heaton or Dave Bancroft on: 08000 199 737

How do you write a great job ad title?

By Steve Riley June 7, 2016

Recruiters are busy people and anxious to spread the word about new roles. But resist the temptation to be too hasty getting jobs online. A bit of care up front writing the right job title and description will pay dividends down the line. Whether you have a complete brief from the client or are writing the ad from scratch there are some simple rules to keep the search engines interested and help candidates find your jobs. Think about your keywords.You'll already have your own ideas about what works for your market and probably follow house style, but here's a few thoughts around search, usability and readability that might help newer recruiter colleagues. Set expectations Include terminology that helps the candidate before they click. Terms like 'part-time' or 'night shift' can help save you paying for clicks from unqualified or disinterested candidates. Abbreviations Include common abbreviations in your job title. If a job is well-known by a particular abbreviation, job seekers will often include those abbreviations in their searches, so use both. For example, for a registered nurse, consider using 'Registered Nurse, RN'. Don't rely on the abbreviation alone. Write like a humanBe careful with buzzwords like 'ninja' or 'wizard'. They lack clarity and are harder to search for. Candidates will search for 'social media marketing' rather than 'social media ninja' Use relevant job titles that current job seekers will be searching for. For example, candidates are likely to search for 'flight attendant' than the more dated 'stewardess' Use the candidate's language not yours. So: client = employer candidate = job seeker vacancy/career/opportunity = job! Avoid industry jargon the average job seeker might not use. You can always hedge your bets with a combination of 'insider' and plain English, eg 'Vehicle Restoration Engineer – Panel Beater' Be specific. For example include experience level or specialism if relevant, eg 'Senior biomedical scientist - Histology' rather than just 'Histologist' Make it look like a real job, even if you're continuously looking for people. Generic long-running job ads are for your own convenience, not the candidate's and won't attract the best applications...and finally Check and check again. Mistakes don't look good. You look sloppy and introduce doubt in the candidate's mind. If your job title is misspelled, it'll never show up in search. More on writing great Job Descriptions in the future. This post borrows heavily from two sources:the excellent advice at the Recruitment SEO Blog An article on Writing Effective Job Titles from the splendid people at RecruiticsLet us know if we can help with anything!