Search Engine Optimisation - what is all the fuss?
Search engine optimisation (or SEO) is the process of making sure that your website gets in front of your target audience when they are using search engines to find sites like yours. SEO helps your site to appear higher in the search engine results pages and if you get it right you will beat your competition to the top slots. The rankings achieved through good SEO are often referred to as "natural" listings or "organic" listings i.e. the positions on the left hand side of the search engine results pages. For example, if you search for the term - business services uk - in Google you will see our own site near the top of the natural listings.
Don’t you want your site to be top of the listings for the search terms your target audience are using? Contact us for more details on how we can help you achieve your goals with your website.
How does SEO work?
First of all, assuming you have a website, you need to make sure that your website is indexed by the search engines. If your website is not indexed properly then the search engines cannot produce your site in their results pages. Your aim is to have every individual important page on your site indexed by the search engines. We will use Google as an example to explain more about search engine indexing because they have almost 70% of the UK search market (August 2006). Indexing means that Google will tag your site so that when someone types a search phrase into their search box Google can quickly work out which sites are most relevant to that search. If your site is considered to be more relevant than another site based on the Google algorithm then your site will appear higher in the Google listings.
SEO involves many different elements, the cumulative affect of which is to achieve higher rankings. Elements involved in optimising a website are:
- conducting research to identify what phrases your target audience are using to find sites like yours
- evaluating your competition so you know what you are up against
- reviewing your own site for search engine friendliness and also for human visitor friendliness!
- Analysing current and past website traffic to identify what works well at the moment - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
- Deciding on a strategy that is right for your business
- Optimising existing (or new) pages by applying on-page optimisation factors e.g. titles, descriptions, headers, content, anchor text and links to other internal pages etc.
- Off-page optimisation which involves inbound link building - this is particularly important to the Google algorithm as this is an indication of how authoritative your site is on its theme
- Monitoring and tracking improvements so that the good can be made better and the bad eliminated.
Good SEO is about continuous improvement and successful SEO is about beating your competition and making more sales. Good SEO should not stop at achieving rankings in the search engines. Good SEO is about driving relevant traffic to your site. Good SEO is about tracking what happens when visitors arrive at your site and ensuring that an increasing number are doing the things you want them to do. Good SEO should also increase your conversion rates!
Search Engines Optimisation is not a magic bullet, it is a marketing process that, when applied well, produces excellent results. Our clients receive a significant return on their investment - contact us for more details of our services and testimonials from satisfied clients.
