Everyone knows that links are a vital part of Search Engine Optimisation. But how do you maximize these links from other sites? Here are some tips from the experts:

Google Alerts: Use these to monitor search results for sites that are similar to yours. So, say you were trying to get links to your site from http://www.universitynewstoday.com go to Google Alerts and set up this alert:

Search terms: “universitynews site: edu”

Type:  “Comprehensive”

How often: “Once a day”

This will cause Google to notify you of new .edu domains that have university content, but do not have a link to University News yet. Once you spot those sites you can discuss with webmasters the possibility of linking.

Buy a link: You can legitimately buy links from charity websites. To do this, do a search with “your keyword” + “sponsor charity” or “charity”. Once you find good sites, contact webmasters and ask if you can get a link for sponsorship. For example, if you’re after “Glasgow therapist” search for “Glasgow therapist sponsor charity” or similar. Technically, you’re not buying links but doing good deeds.

Go networking: Speak to pals, acquaintances, business colleagues and see if you can do a “links trade”. In other words, “I’ll link you if you’ll link me”. It might be a bit random but it costs nothing and it might very well help to improve SEO just a little.

Every little helps in the great big SEO world.

More evidence that businesses are seeing greater value in on-line retailing comes today with the news that ToysRUs has paid £3.6m ($5.1m) for the Toys.com domain name.

It’s thought to be the highest price paid for a domain this year although nowhere near to the record $14m paid for sex.com in 2007 or the $9.5m paid for porn.com

While the prices being paid for domain names have dropped by as much as half during the credit crunch, many domain name sellers are reporting an increase in the number of sales, especially to small and medium-sized businesses.

One UK domain name seller Sedo reports a trebling of domain name sales.
A spokesperson for Sedo is reported as adding: “In the case of ToysRUs it could be that they are thinking of rebranding or increasing their online presence. Toys.com is going to put them in the top search ranking and is likely to give them kudos in terms of brand recognition.”

Internet retail observers believe that as the recession bites more businesses are looking to go on-line in a bid to stay afloat. E-tailing is seen as a more cost effective and efficient way to operate than via high street retailing.

One analyst said: “This is especially true of brick and mortar retailers. There is much less overhead involved in selling toys for example online than through hundreds of cash-draining big box retail stores.”

The Toys.com auction, which took place last week, saw a series of bidders for the domain. But as the price hit £2.1m ($3m), only two were left: ToysRUs and National A-1 Advertising.

Think human and think software. These days, more than ever, to hit the dizzy heights of search engine rankings you need to write good copy for both the reader and the search engine spiders.

In the first place, the content of your website must read well for the user. It must be interesting, authoritative, entertaining and creative to gain maximum conversions. But a clever writer will also pay a lot of attention to getting the copy right in titles, headings, tags, intra-site links and external links.

Titles
These are very important and usually the first thing read by both real and virtual visitors. A title must contain keyword targets at the individual word level while attracting interest in potential readers as a whole phrase too. Never, ever leave your page “untitled”. And never, ever waste valuable space by making your company name the title of every page.

Keywords that are relevant to the page should be part of every page’s title:

Heading tags
These define the headings and subheadings of your article to both readers and search engine spiders. By default they appear larger than normal text and are bolded. While they are not a magic ranking bullet, they are looked at with more importance than average text and are an opportunity to show spiders the themes of your content and what keywords you wish to rank for.

The H1 tag
This is the main heading of your article and is the most important, rather like a headline in a newspaper. It should state clearly what the article is about and include the main for SEO.

H2 tags
An H2 tag defines subtopics. Again make it descriptive and useful with keywords included.

H3 tags
These act as sub-sub headings where necessary.

One topic per page
Keep content simple by sticking to one topic per page where possible. This doesn’t only make sense for ease of reading but also works best for search engine “crawlers”  that have algorithms that tend to work best on one concept at a time. Also, limiting the writing to one topic at a time helps with the task of placing keywords in 
the meta descriptions, page title, body copy, tags and links.

Write, write, write
Search engines and people love new information so consistently update your website with fresh content and they will visit more often.

That the shiny new Official Website of the British Monarchy – launched a few weeks back – includes YouTube videos and Google map links that tie in with the royal diary of engagements shows just how up-to-the minute The Queen is.

In fact, in net technology terms The Queen has always been ahead of her time. Back in 1976, Her Royal Highness was the first monarch to send an e-mail during a visit to an army base. And last year she uploaded a video on to YouTube during a visit to Google’s offices in London.

Now her new website, revamped for the second time since it first went on-line in 1997 is a showcase of many up-to-the-minute web design trends. Created by Hampshire-based consultancy Bang, in collaboration with the Buckingham Palace web team, the site includes a virtual tour of Buckingham Palace, a YouTube video of the Changing of the Guard and numerous picture galleries of the Royals at work. Go see for yourself at www.royal.gov.uk.

It’s widely regarded that the first text in most website pages should be a summary of one or two sentences telling the viewer exactly what is the function of the page.

This starter-summary has several important functions.

• It is a quick way to tell the reader what your page is about.
• It helps you, the writer to sum up what your page is all about.
• It can double as the text seen in search engine results (after the page title)

How to write a summary:

* Get to the point quickly. Don’t waste time giving background info, this is the place for direct, specific information about your page, not the whole site.

* Write the summary so it makes sense when read as a stand-alone item.

* It must be useful in search results

* It should be not more than three sentences.

Here are two simple page summary examples:

1) Use this page to find out more about the coaching and training sessions at Glasgow Triathlon Club. There is also a link to the useful club forum.

2) If you’re looking for hill walking routes in the Aviemore area then this is the page for you. There is a range of graded routes from easy/beginner to expert/experienced.

Many studies of how users read text on the internet has revealed that they do not actually read. Instead many people scan the text – and especially when they are looking for business or company information.

A study of five different writing styles found that a website scored 58% higher in measured usability when it was written concisely, 47% higher when the text was scannable and 27% higher when it was written in an objective style instead of a promotional style.

Combining these three changes into a website that was concise, scannable and objective resulted in 124% higher measured usability.

So think about all of this when you’re writing your next piece of content for your website.

Tips for web writing: Ensure that you write in a simple, clear and straightforward manner. Include lots of sub-heads and straight-talking headlines. Bold up words if they are important. Don’t over-write but don’t under-write either. Research has shown that about 250 words is the optimum per page.

The bottom line is that it is better to employ someone else to write your copy if you are not experienced, as it will pay dividends in the long-term.