SiteMap Help From Bing.

Anyone wanting to index their entire site quickly in any search engine should submit a sitemap to the search engines. This is no guarantee that your entire site will be indexed, but it will be crawled much much easier. If you add new content to your site, you can modify your sitemap, and "ping" the engines, letting them know you have new content, too.



The standard for a search engine site map is an xml file, nothing to do with a html sitemap you may have on your website (or asp, or whichever code your site uses), as this is not for the end user to help find their way, rather the seach bots.

Bing has today released a very comprehensive guide to submitting a SiteMap to their search engine, although the principle can be applied to the other bots. Well worth a read, especially for those not too tech-minded.

Looking to improve your visibility on the search engines? I offer Search Engine Optimisation in Barcelona and also Link Building Services for your website to improve rankings. Contact me for more details.

Improving Conversions

Any web page has a purpose. Perhaps it's a click through to a second page, a sign-up, a form to be completed, or any other clear Call To Action (CTA). Optimising a page only for keywords is a great way to start your SEO, but it's only half the battle. If you're a good Search Engine Marketer, you'll know that once the visitor arrives on your page, they need to act on what you've planned. This is what's known as a conversion.



Conversions can easily be set up as "goals" in your analytics software, for example, it's a really quick exercise in Google's Webmaster Tools. You will be able to see the amounts of visits to the page in question and the goals completed, or the conversions you have managed to get. You might be pleased with the current results, but there's always room for improvement. What use is the analytics data you have if you don't aim to improve, right?

One of the best ways to improve on conversions, which I've touched on before is to start doing testing. It's amazing how stagnant a page can become with nothing changing it over a period of years. You have to ask yourself this question: If it's free (minus your time) then why not do it? There are a ton of free tools out there, and it makes sense to test everything. EVERYTHING. Start with split tests A/B and check the bounce rate, and the conversion rate. Then make follow up tests to see if your choice is right. Google's website optimiser is a great tool for this - I really, really like it.

Ask your friends who have no idea what you do to take a really quick look at your website, and get them to tell you what sticks out. Tone down colours, leave out images, see what happens. Don't make your page too "noisy" with too many choices. Funnel your visitors to the right page, and the rest should follow naturally.

Not getting the conversions you want? Barcelona SEO can help. Contact me for a chat and we can brainstorm some ideas. I also offer comprehensive SEO Training in Barcelona - both in-house or one-on-one.

Bing Offers SEO Guidelines

After Google's introduction to SEO earlier this year, Bing has now released it's SEO guidelines, in an attempt to encourage users to keep best practices and adhere to their guidelines with regards clear and white hat SEO.



There's nothing new here, and it's clear that Microsoft want to instill in webmasters the need for clear page content, optimised Title and meta tags, in order to be in line with those doing the same - they state that they can't produce via their algorithm clear captions (or snippets as Google likes to call them) in the SERPs - a funky little feature in Bing.

there's a handy url to be able to ping Bing's bot and update your site map immediately, although if your site structure is correct, there should be no need.

Bing even goes as far as touting their competition, stating that

"Moreover, investments in solid, reputable SEO work made for Bing will bring similar improvements in your website’s page rank in Google and Yahoo! as well."

Either way, if you've read Google's introduction to SEO, Bing's is worthwhile reading, too. Comments welcome as always guys, and I'd love to know what you think.

Not happy with your website's performance, contact me at Barcelona SEO for analysis and reporting on your website and how I can improve it. I also offer SEO Training in Barcelona, either in house, or in the upcoming workshops planned for early 2010.

AdWords Hook - Part 2

After my recent post on Google's intent on gaining new customers by offering thousands of euros in online advertising through their adwords programme, I was surprised to receive this week, yet another letter through the post offering me another incredible 50 Euros coupon (it came as an AdSense user, so maybe that's why it was 50% less than last time?!)



Considering Google has a 95% market share in Spain according to comscore, it just makes you wonder how much google are making in online ads, and clicks from people who don't know how to set up an AdWords account properly. I have encountered a high proportion of customers who have dabbled in AdWords or other PPC platforms, and have cringed when I've seen their accounts - exactly the same as what I was doing when I started.

I can offer AdWords and Pay Per Click management in Barcelona as well as thorough training to help with any campaigns you might have running or want to start - and if it's soon, I have 150 euros worth of credit to offer you for free ;o) I also offer excellent website optimisation in Barcelona to improve your positioning in google and other search engine's rankings. Please feel free to contact me for more details.

The Influence of Branding

I've mentioned before the importance of branding and creating an important idea of trust for your website users. Every company needs and depends on this - even the search engines. Google's huge market share as a preferred search engine in the US is around 70% and only slightly less in the UK - so it's important to keep the branding up, to keep the users coming back.


There is a premise that you will always return to a search engine - like a store - to find what you're looking for, even if the products (in this case the results) start to worsen. With the arrival of Bing and Microsoft's intention of winning back some of that huge market share, Microsoft employee Michael Kordahi has developed a Blind Search Page which I think is a great idea.

The page has a search bar at the top, for you to search for anything you like - kind of like any normal search engine. However, the results page will show you three columns of results, from Yahoo! Google and Bing, but without the branding. You need to review the results, compare and then vote for the column you think has fulfilled your enquiry. Once you click, the results are revealed.



I think it's a very fun tool to play with - to have all 3 results on the same page right next to each other, and have enjoyed playing around with it. I suggest you give it a go and see what you think. Feel free to leave a comment below.

Want to appear high on these 3 search engines, too? I offer website optimisation in Barcelona to enable higher rankings for your chosen keywords. Or if your traffic needs an immediate injection then let me manage your Barcelona Adwords account.

The Google AdWords Hook - By Post

Like many of you, I'm sure, this morning I received through the post an invitation to Free 100 € credit for an AdWords account. The promotion is only valid until the 26th July, and comes with a personal code for you to reclaim your credit.

The leaflet is very clear, and states such benefits of "Earning clients with Google" with such ease of Three Easy steps. Create an Ad, Choose the keywords for your daily budget, and your clients will click and reach your company.

So, where's the catch? Well, the leaflet is clearly based at people who have little or absolutely no idea what Google AdWords is (it's only mentioned once on the whole 4-page leaflet), and they even have a 902 number where you can call and a "Google specialist" will help you create and set up your first AdWords account. And therein lies the catch. The coupon code if for accounts of less that 14 days old. The majority of first time users of an AdWords account will have useless keywords, far too broad, and even probably take heed of the keyword suggestion tool (basically encouraging you to spend more money). Depending on your sector/niche, the 100 Euros gift could be used up very quickly in clicks. However, you will be so tied up with the adwords campaign (which you have probably put a lot of effort into or spent money on the 902 number) that you'll want to continue, and will probably keep spending badly for hopeless clicks for another couple of months before either deciding that "it doesn't work/it's too expensive" - either that, or pay for a professional to have a tweak and set out a quality campaign. So it's a win-win situation for Google who'll probably easily make back the 100 € gift.

Have you received one of these through the post? What do you think? Please contact me for AdWords Management in Barcelona and for any other elements of Search Engine Optimisation in Barcelona I'll be happy to help.