Search Engine Tips – Protect your SERP
Nov.15.2009 
Whenever someone searches for your brand name using a search engine, they are also being shown 9 organic results on the search engine results page (SERP) that may not be your site and maybe even another 9 paid results for competitors bidding on your brand name, which means you could be competing with a total of 18 other results that aren’t your site!
To ensure the searcher a) comes directly to your website and b) doesn’t see any negative entries that can creep in to the top 10 results, it is important that you use as wide a range of branded content as possible for the search engines to spider and rank. Taking your position at number one in the SERP organic section as red, below are other methods to ensure you dominate your brand searches.
Paid search top result
It may seem strange to bid on your own brand name when you already have top organic position but with clicks likely to be as low as 5p to 20p per click you should view it as an investment in online real estate. Eye tracking research shows that people’s eyes start at the top of the SERP and as you go down the page fewer and fewer people look at that area (see the research here). By having two entries at the top you are increasing the likelihood of a click and forcing other results further below the fold. You are also blocking anyone else bidding for the top paid spot on your brand name.
Put your blog on a sub domain
Google views sub-domains as separate entities to the main site which gives you a great opportunity to get a 2nd entry in the organic results by naming your blog something along the lines of http://blog.domain.com
Create a Facebook page
A well populated and linked to (e.g. from your main website) Facebook company profile should see your Facebook profile be shown high in the rankings. To set up a business profile go here http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Wikipedia page
Although the terms state that you are not allowed to write an entry about an organisation you are associated with, let’s be honest, it happens all the time. There are too many corporate entries for it no to! Google loves Wikipedia and ranks it’s page in the top 5 for countless search terms. Set up your own page to benefit from this love! Go to the home page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and click on ‘create account’ in the top right to get started.
Google Universal Search
Google is always trying new ways at presenting the web’s information, and it is rare to be shown a SERP that doesn’t have either some results from Google News, Product search, blog search or all three! If you don’t have one, get a Google account and start using the submission and feed features to make sure Google is picking up your press releases, blog posts and displaying your products.
As we touched on in a previous post about Twitter’s integration in to the fabric of search, Twitter accounts are only going to become more prominent in the SERP, not less. Make sure you have an account and link to it from your home page to show Google how important it is.
YouTube channel
Following the same theory as Facebook and Twitter, a profile on such a large and heavily linked website will be shown highly in searches for your brand name if combined with a respectable amount of content and a little linking from your own site to the channel’s home page. Create an account here http://www.youtube.com/create_account?next=None
What about page 2?
How often do you go beyond the first page of Google? Probably rarely if ever, and that’s the same for the majority of searchers. The truth is, if you’re in position 11 to 20, you’re going to get crumbs, if you’re not in the top 20, you’re nowhere!
new Add – ons
InstaHost.co.uk is proud to announce the following additions:
RoundCube Webmail – RoundCube Webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking. Once installed you can use RoundCube to access any mailbox on our servers using IMAP. Ideal for anyone wanting their own Webmail installation or for Resellers looking to have a Webmail client on their website.
Gallery – Share your pictures with others or view them over the internet. Upload your pictures while on holiday so you can take more. Create groups of people who can see different sets of pictures e.g. you might let your football team see pictures from matches .
MediaWiki – A collaborative technology for organizing information on Web sites. Work with others to maintain information. For example if you run a business you can share information with your colleagues at the same time as documenting it for yourself.
SugarCRM – A Customer Relationship Management application – This application lets a business keep track of its relationships with its customers. Users can manage customer accounts, contacts, sales leads, calls, meetings etc. A dashboard showing the most successful leads, the sales pipeline, and the month-by-month outcomes for opportunities in the pipeline can be displayed.
New Webmail!
A big thank you to all our customers who have requested new features and upgrades to our Webmail service, we know that our Webmail system is critical to many of you and we have been working on a major upgrade for some time. Thanks to you, our Webmail service is better than ever!
Our new Webmail is even easier to use, is faster to display messages and works in a wide range of web browsers with many advanced features. Some of the great new features include:
New Folder Support
Our updated Webmail system allows you to create as many folders as you need to easily store and organise your mail. You can store up to 100 MB of mail in your folders.
Enhanced Calendar
This handy feature allows you to manage appointments (tasks) on a quarterly, annual, or daily basis.
Outlook-to-Webmail Sync
Microsoft Outlook can be synchronized with your Webmail account so that contacts and scheduler data can be shared between a desktop and Webmail client. If a user adds a new appointment (task) or contact while using Outlook or Webmail, the data will be automatically synchronised between the applications.
Enhanced Address Book
Webmail’s enhanced address book functionality allows you to import and export contacts from/to CSV (comma separated values) file format. You can also sync your Webmail account with your existing address-books.
Spell Checker
Spell check your email before sending it using the built in spell checker with a new and updated language database.
Mailbox Sorting & Searching
Messages contained in your Inbox can be sorted by subject, date, or email address. You can search your mailbox for keywords, allowing quick and easy access to your stored email.
Rich HTML Messages
Create eye-catching emails using different fonts and colours or by embedding pictures and sounds. Why not add your company logo or a customised signature? You can easily attach files to your emails to send to friends, family or colleagues.
Email Filters
Create rules to move specific messages or block unwanted senders altogether.
Along with the new features we have also implemented a new hardware platform for the Webmail system to operate on. This uses state-of-the-art hardware load balancers to distribute traffic to our to our cluster of Webmail servers. Your messages are centrally stored on giant disk arrays and backed up each day, first to another disk array and then to tape which is stored offsite.
