SEO Blog

In an ideal world, each and every page on your website would be properly themed and contextualised to give the search engines a clear indication what your content is all about. This means researching individual keywords and phrases, whilst implementing unique Meta on each page.

For many though, this just isn’t possible. The time and understanding required are beyond their resources and so the website will suffer as a consequence. That said, whilst it is preferable to have as many pages as possible fully optimised, you should at least start with those that are most important.
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Content is part of the whole SEO services package. Whilst we all talk about implementing keywords, creating embedded word links and Meta behind the scenes, it is the on-page copy that will ultimately sway visitors and search engines alike to take you seriously.

The importance, therefore, of getting your website’s content right can hardly be overstated. Despite this though, many websites still choose to ignore it; leaving dozens of pages bare or creating vapid text that neither informs nor engages. It could be undermining your site and your business.
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Before you start to consider implementing a full-blown strategy, you might well question why it is so important to get your website ranked on a search engine in the first place. Yes everybody talks about getting to number one on Google, but why exactly should you bother?

Well, for starters, Google is the most visited website on the planet. In fact, to contextualise that a little, Yahoo is now the third most visited (behind Facebook) even though Google command 90% of the worldwide search market. This means that Google are leagues ahead of the competition, but Bing (5th) and Yahoo (3rd)provide worthy support; between the three of them there are some significant traffic levels being generated.
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You’ve taken the plunge, you’ve developed a website, but nothing’s happening. You can’t find yourself on search engines, you’re getting no traffic, it’s a disaster! Don’t panic. Your hard work isn’t going to waste, you just need to have a little patience and do a little extra work.

It’s a remarkably common set of circumstances. Some individuals and businesses expect the Internet to provide instant magical results. They want to be ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs and to have hoards of targeted traffic flooding to their homepage. Surprisingly, they end up disappointed.
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When you’re looking to create a website, what should come first? Design, content, architecture, SEO? There’s so much to do, how do you fit it all in?

Well, SEO is largely a marketing tool. It’s designed to get good websites to rank where they deserve within the search engines. It’s a way of communicating with their crawlers and saying “hey, this is what my site is all about, these are the services we offer and the keywords that describe what we do”.
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The Internet is fed by two things, 1) information and 2) links. When we find useful information, we link to it, that’s how it works. Some people might think that’s a bit of an odd way of going about things, but that is how all of the algorithms work and how you will get your website noticed.

Link building is a huge part of SEO. When done right it can get you climbing up the rankings. However, when done incorrectly your site may stagnate or worse, plummet to the murky depths of search engine obscurity.
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There’s no doubting the power of an analytics programme; it gives you all of the statistics you could ever need and helps you to identify where your site can be optimised.

This of course is the positive side of data, there is however a negative counter argument. Conversely, whilst the statistics may be useful, they may also blind you to wider problems of your website.
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It may seem like a bit of a strange marketing strategy. Mostly because SEO doesn’t actively go out and engage with the wider public, in fact much of what is done is entirely invisible; lying beneath the surface, but far from dormant.

However, when it comes to the Internet, things are a little different to the ‘real world’. You don’t just get seen on big billboards or people walking around with ‘Golf Sale’ sandwich boards; you have to go where people are looking, you have to go to the search engines.

It might sound tenuous, it might even sound a little ridiculous, but most websites get the vast majority of their traffic through the search engines. People use them to find everything. Whether it’s to solve a mathematical equation or to buy a calculator, the search engine has become the number one resource for information, products and services.

With so much potential traffic out there, it would be madness not to try and tap into it. But to start getting your share of this constant stream of people, you need to identify how you want people to find you (i.e. for what terms) and begin optimising your website for them.

Don’t become blinded by search engine optimisation though. Whilst it’s important that you are getting your website seen and read by the search engines, don’t forget about the human visitors. Copy can become cluttered by unnecessarily high volumes of keywords within the body and headlines, so don’t get carried away.

When done in moderation and in the correct fashion, SEO can make all the difference for any website. But like all marketing tools, the advertising is only as good as the product at the end of the day. A fully optimised site may well get to the top of Google, but that won’t guarantee success, particularly if the design, content and services don’t match the lofty position.

Search engine algorithms have been improved manifold over the years, so the chances of a ‘bad ‘ website topping the rankings is far more unlikely. However, SEO shouldn’t be viewed as an alternative to good, common sense business practices. It is marketing, plain and simple. It is there to get you seen and to ensure customers come through the door and view what you have to offer.

Even though it works in a very different way to most conventional marketing strategies, its effectiveness cannot be beaten. You may want to supplement it with a little PPC advertising, which also uses many of the fundamental principles as SEO, or even social media; but ultimately, search engines are the best source of continual, free traffic online.

The effectiveness is staggering and so can be the results; which is why website owners ignore SEO at their peril.

People often question why SEO professionals are so besotted with Google. The honest truth is that it is a relationship borne out of convenience and necessity more than anything.

Google is the benchmark for all website optimisation. It has the biggest audience of any website in the world and therefore has the greatest potential for getting your website noticed. As the most used website in the world, it is hardly surprising that it is also the most popular search engine too – well it goes without saying really. As people are still compelled to use search engines to find products and services, this is where you need to be seen.
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Regular readers of this blog will be aware that there is nothing mystic about moving a site up the rankings. It’s a continued process that requires regular attention, frequent optimisation and an understanding of how the search engines work.

Essentially the search engines determine their rankings by scanning the content of each page of a website and factoring in their linking profile. There are other details, but these are the two most prominent factors. This information is fed into their algorithm, which then decides where your site should rank when compared to others.
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