Nima's Multimedia Blog: Research Project

Showing posts with label Research Project. Show all posts

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Research Project Final Stage - Viva Voce

Today I added the finishing touches to my Viva Voce Presentation which is exploring Search Engine Optimization.

I had a practice presentation on Thursday 8th May in front of my tutor and classmates; it was a good experience and I received some useful feedback to make some improvements.

The actual presentation, which is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, will cover my research enquiry, purpose, design, artefacts, conclusions, SEO strategy design, future implementation and further research. I hope nerves don't get the better of me and I am able to confidently present my work.

It's been an interesting project for me and hopefully one that will help forge my specialism within the web industry.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Research Project: Fifth Artefact - Link Building

In my final artefact I will be looking at building back links to my test website and analysing how this affects the ranking for my chosen set of keywords.

Reputable back links can increase the PageRank of a website and this can make it look more important to search engines and thus increase the ranking in search results. According to this source back links can have a total weighting of 40.09% upon ranking factors on Google. It is also worth noting that the Google search algorithms have now learned to disregard spammy mass purchased back links in favour of quality reputable links from sources which are relevant to the subject matter of the website.

As well as the back links which already existed on this blog, facebook, twitter etc. I decided to add more links on places which I felt were relevant and would have the biggest impact; these were:

Buckin' Burrito Google + page.
Google Places - a facility for registering businesses on Google maps.
Yelp.co.uk - a directory for restaurants
Urbanspoon.com - a directory for restaurants
Ufindus.com - a general directory for businesses
Yell.com - a general directory for businesses

I waited a week after placing all the links and tested on Google for my chosen set of keywords. Here are my results:

before (on 29/01/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 1
burrito sheffield - page 3, position 2
buckin' burrito - page 1, position 6

after (on 5/02/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - page 8, position 10
burrito bar sheffield - page 1, position 9
burrito sheffield - page 1, position 5
buckin' burrito - page 1, position 4

I am pleased that my first and most general keyword (mexican food in sheffield) has now for the first time featured my website in Google search. I believe this is due to the fact that in some of the directories I listed Buckin' Burrito as a Mexican restaurant and not just a burrito bar.

Overall there has been positive movement for all my keywords so it is clear that quality back links can have a significant positive impact on a website's ranking.

Next I will look at plotting all my test results from all my artefacts in a graph so I can tell which method of optimization has been most successful.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Research Project: Fourth Artefact - Metadata

I will now look at the impact a webpage's metadata has on it's ranking in the Google search engine.

You may be wondering 'what is metadata?' - according to this source metadata is:

'Simply put, metadata is data about data. It is descriptive information about a particular data set, object, or resource, including how it is formatted, and when and by whom it was collected. Although metadata most commonly refers to web resources, it can be about either physical or electronic resources. It may be created automatically using software or entered by hand.'

I have come across a very useful article online which points out the most effective meta tags for SEO. See here for more information

Based on the reading I had done on this subject I decided to update the metadata on the home page of my test website as follows:

home page before:

home page after:

As you can see many of the new meta tags provide information for social networks which improves search visibility through those platforms. This builds on my previous artefact which initially linked the site to social media by now providing more detailed data specifically for social networks. I have also added a 'publisher' tag which links the site's ownership to a registered business on Google +.

As in previous tests I wished to find out how the new update would affect the ranking on Google for my chosen set of keywords. Here are my results:

before (on 21/01/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 5
burrito sheffield - page 4, position 8
buckin' burrito - page 2, position 3

after (on 29/01/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 1
burrito sheffield - page 3, position 2
buckin' burrito - page 1, position 6

As you can see from the data above there has been a significant increase in ranking for three of my keywords. From this result I can conclude that correct use of meta data has a positive impact on Google ranking. I believe this is due to the fact that the website is now linked to a Google registered business and has increased visibility on social platforms.

In my next and final artefact I will be looking at the impact of back links on search engine ranking.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Research Project: Third Artefact - Social Media Integration

In my 3rd artefact I will be looking at the impact of social media integration on Google search results. By social media integration I mean individual Facebook, Twitter and Google + pages as well as buttons on the website which allow sharing of the site on these three platforms. I have also created a Twitter feed on the home page of the test site. Below you will see an image of the bottom of the home page which includes social media page links, Facebook share/like buttons, Tweet button and Google plus one button; the twitter feed is on the right of the image.

I have read that building links through social media in the form of likes, shares, tweets etc can increase the visibility of a website and therefore raise the position in search results. According to this source social metrics have a 7.24% impact on ranking factors in Google.

I wanted to put this to the test so I checked the position in Google for my selected keywords before and after the social media integration. Here are my results:

before (on 12/01/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 6
burrito sheffield - page 4, position 3
buckin' burrito - page 2, position 3

after (on 21/01/2014):

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 5
burrito sheffield - page 4, position 8
buckin' burrito - page 2, position 3

As you can see there was very little positive movement in Google and in fact one of my keywords had gone down 5 positions. During my test period there were 42 likes on Facebook but only one share through each social platform; if there had been a bigger social engagement and over a longer period I believe the Google positions would have changed more. Social networking is one of the never-ending factors in SEO so I would encourage my client to continue promoting the business this way to see higher rankings in Google.

I have read that the social networks have their own meta tags such as open graph and Twitter cards. In my fourth artefact I will look at how implementing the new meta tags will help build visibility on social networks and if this will affect the ranking in Google.

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Research Project: Second Artefact - Keyword Placement

I will now look at keyword placement and how this impacts a website's position in search results.

My test website which I am building and optimizing for a client is http://buckinburrito.co.uk. This is a Mexican fast food restaurant located in Sheffield.

My search engine analysis will be done on http://google.co.uk and tested on Mozilla Firefox.

Initially after uploading the website to the server for the first time I linked the site to Google's Webmaster Tools and Analytics. Webmaster Tools enabled me to index the website on Google by submitting a sitemap. Analytics lets me track how often and where the website is visited.

The website started with very basic text and generic page titles. All the pages used the same title (Buckin' Burrito) and meta description (Quality Mexican Burrito Bar serving burritos, tacos, salads and more). There were no headings or body text.

I chose a set of keywords as a guide to my keyword optimization and tested on Google on 8/1/2014:

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - no listing
burrito sheffield - no listing
buckin' burrito - page 1, position 10*

* each page has ten websites listed.

I did some reading and found that the best places to put keywords into are in page title, headline, body text, URL, image alt attributes, internal/external links and meta description. See http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

For the home page I optimized as follows:

page titles to Mexican Burrito bar in Sheffield - Buckin' Burrito

meta description to Try our freshly made burritos, fajitas, tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, salads and much more.

heading 1 (h1) to Delicious & Healthy, it 'Mex' sense

heading 2 (h2) to The home of healthy fresh Mexican food

body text to:

Welcome to our website. We are passionate about Mexican cuisine, especially when it's quick and offered at the best price.
Our mission is to provide fast food that not only tastes delicious but also keeps you healthy. All our food is freshly made using authentic Mexican ingredients.
Explore our <a href="menu.html">menu</a> to find out what types of food and drink we have on offer and read <a href="about-us.html">about us</a> to discover the story behind Buckin' Burrito.

The URL was already including the keyword buckin' burrito and descriptive alt attributes were used for images.

I used slightly different page titles and meta descriptions for other pages on the website to avoid duplicating content on search engines.

I noticed the position in Google had changed on 12/1/2014 to the following:

mexican food in sheffield - no listing
burrito bar sheffield - page 2, position 6
burrito sheffield - page 4, position 3
buckin' burrito - page 2, position 3

I noticed that there had been a negative movement in search results for the search term buckin' burrito. This is due to the fact that the words buckin' burrito are at the end of the page title rather than at the start; it seems that the starting words of the page title are picked up as more relevant terms and rank higher in Google.

From this result I can see how important keyword placement is when done correctly. I could have fitted more keywords but this would have been picked up as spam and given a negative result in my test. I believe I have the right balance here and this first test has been a good start to my marketing campaign.

In the next artefact I will be looking at social media integration and again testing how this impacts search results.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

Research Project: First Artefact - Organic vs Sponsored search results

Throughout my five artefacts I have decided to follow an internet marketing campaign for a test website with the aim of increasing the website ranking in search results.

Through my first artefact I wish to discover the most effective strategy for marketing a site for search engines.

There are two types of search results; these are organic results i.e. websites which achieve their ranking through search engine optimization and those which are sponsored results i.e. websites which pay for the listing through services such as Google Ad Words. Through surveying members of the public I wish to enquire which type of search result people actually pay attention to so I can start my campaign in the right direction.

Using the image below I have asked people:

When you do a search on Google do you first click on the links in the red area or the links in the blue area?

I have not indicated this on the survey but the red area is sponsored results and the blue area is organic results.

So far I have had 19 responses to my survey; here are the results:

I have spoken to Google to enquire about the price of Ad Words and found out that paying for a sponsored result for just one keyword would cost at least £5 per day. From the result of my survey it is clear to me that sponsored search results are generally ignored by the public so paying for this expensive method of marketing would be a waste of money.

Organic search engine optimization is clearly the best way forward for my campaign. I now need to learn how to effectively optimize a web page for a selected set of keywords. In my second artefact I will look at keyword placement in page titles/headings and how this impacts a page ranking in organic search results.

Saturday, 12 October 2013

Research Project: Proposal

Research Topic. Outline in no more than 150 words what your project is going to explore. Is your topic concerning an issue, concept, processes or application that you want to acquire deeper knowledge and understanding in? Is it an area that you have not been able to fully explore?

Looking specifically at search engine optimization I wish to explore and understand the processes and techniques needed to give a website a high ranking in search results. One of the main search engines, Google, is constantly changing search algorithms so what practices must be maintained by a company or individual to keep them above their competitors.

This is not an area of web design that has been explored in my course but I feel it is essential so I am keen to learn as much as I can about SEO through my own research.

Your Background: Outline in no more than 150 words how familiar you are already with this topic? Does it build on personal interest? Have you done any formal or informal investigation of this project already?

In my second year of university I was given a few tips in the use of page titles, meta descriptions and page headings from my lessons with Giselle Leeb but I did not yet fully understand how this impacted a website's ranking. In the same year I also began researching Google services and made use of Google's Webmaster Tools and Analytics in my client projects. In May 2013 I redesigned my portfolio website with the intention of starting freelance design work; I began looking into ways of paying Google to appear higher in search results but I soon realised that this was not financially viable for me. In the summer I did a ten week placement with a SEO company called Easy Internet Services (see http://www.easy-internet.co.uk/ ); this gave me a deeper insight into organic SEO and really sparked my interest in this topic.

Research sources. In week 2 of your final year you will be doing a presentation. At that presentation you will be asked for a number of specific research sources that are already aware of that will help you during the initial stages of the project. List as many of them now. They might be films, magazines, interviews, websites, You Tube links, etc.

Here are a few of the SEO articles I have read online:

http://searchengineland.com/21-essential-seo-tips-techniques-11580

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/seo/seo-tactics-methods.htm

http://www.homestead.com/blog/05/2013/7-basic-seo-techniques-all-webmasters-must-know#.Uk_89YYjK-k

Here is an interesting video about sponsored vs organic search results:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt0v_RUb3Yc

Here is a very useful video about SEO techniques for a new website:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD12ZCvr0XE

I have signed up to an email newsletter from http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/ which is an internet marketing company referred to me by my tutor.

I am currently looking into finding books and papers on the topic of SEO; these will be included in my presentation.

Goals: In no more than 50 words outline what do you want to achieve as a result of working on this topic.

I wish to further my understanding of SEO to the point that I can offer this as one of my services as a web designer.

Problems: What initial problems can you see?

- Search engines can take weeks to fully index a website and build an accurate picture of it's ranking so it will be difficult to see immediate results when creating my artefacts. I will take this into consideration when planning a schedule for my research.

- There are methods of SEO known as black hat which can be harmful and ineffective in long term website ranking; I need to recognise these methods exist early in my research so I can avoid using them in my work. I wish to use reputable white hat methods of SEO which will help both me and my clients.

Summer break: list the things you can be doing over the summer break to help you prepare.

My summer break was mainly focused on the work placement I mentioned before which helped me practice web design and start to understand the practical application of SEO. I have started to read about my chosen topic and used newly learned techniques in my freelance work.

Nima's Multimedia Blog